I really enjoy live comedy. For various reasons I hadn’t seen any for over a month, so going to see some last night, especially when it is that good, was a pleasant surprise. But it also reminded me of the problems I face when I do venture forth. The main one being, I’m easily offended.

I don’t quite know how. Certainly, as a nice white middle-class girl at an inner-London comprehensive, I had to make sure I didn’t offend anyone, and it’s easy to offend when you’re a slightly pretentious, well-spoken geek. But The Real Daniel O’Donnell Show at The Albany last night wasn’t full of race-orientated comedy last night. This would be pointless, as with all live comedy, the audience was basically white. Maybe Jewish, but not black. Nope, the jokes were about The A-Team raping in Vietnam (in a song performed by Phil Whelans), and a sketch about paedophiles, based on Loose Women, that most scintillating of programmes. The first was actually very funny, perhaps because if you put anything to a jaunty melody it somehow seems more friendly. The paedophile sketch I found less funny. I hope this is because it wasn’t actually very funny, but I suspect it’s because I was quite offended by it. I’ve laughed at Madeline McCann jokes (and then felt a bit guilty), and I find Frankie Boyle hilarious, despite his entire act being about pushing the audience as far as he can. But on some level, I’m offended by them, and if I caught someone looking at me while I laughed I think I’d feel very ashamed. So I’m hoping that it was just that the sketch was unfunny. The whole show is put together very quickly before each monthly club night, which leads to some fairly hit and miss pieces, but creates a great energy and sense of excitement.
There was then a great band on. Subtle link, there, sorry.
Anyway, The Brute Chorus were fantastic. The singer looked like some sort of 40s swashbuckling Errol Flynn type. It’s essentially music of the intelligent art pop persuasion, but bloody brilliant for all that. A bit of a Kinks style riff here, a Cure bassline there (There’s a definite LoveCats vibe to one song), and you’ve got a whole room loving the energetic pop. I though that heights had been reached with ‘Nebuchadnezzer’ and ‘Chateau’, but then for an encore (after singing Happy Birthday to Nick, the keyboardist/guitarist, they brought on Tigs, so sing the flipping amazing The Cuckoo & The Stolen Heart. A fantastic bluesy sea-shanty type thing (yup, ok, I admit defeat, it’s undefinable), they have immediately captured my heart, and I’ll be looking out for more. Look, I got to the end without mentioning they’re releasing their music on the Hawley Arms (the boozer of choice for Wino and Borrell) label Bumpman Records. Oh. Dammit.