29 - 30 April 2008: Brendan Riley, Gordon Southern and Matt Welcome
CH-uckles competed with the all-English Champions League semi-finals... and won! Three cutting-edge comedians went up against all that Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United had to offer on a Tuesday and Wednesday night in May in Zurich and Zug and came out on top, without having resort to penalties or bribing the ref.Brendan Riley compered, despite the fact that his beloved Liverpool were playing on Wednesday (that's a man who is devoted to his art, above and beyond the call of duty...) As a born and bred Scouser, he fully appreciated the fact that in Zug, he was playing a gig right below a Ferrari garage and threatened to take some hub-caps home as souvenirs.
The opening act was Gordon Southern, whose wife was with him in the audience and provided the subject for one of his real-life (and highly comical) observations. By the end of his act, the audience all knew that when you're wandering through the dodgy London suburb of Brixton on a dark night, the way to scare off muggers is by shouting "fire" and point up at a nearby building! With the would-be assailants themselves then panicking, you can make good your escape. You see – CH-uckles shows are more than just a fun night out, they teach you some street savvy... (Gordon did however point out that this only works if the muggers have a knife. If they are pointing a pistol, don't shout "fire"...)
Street savvy was very much on hand from compere Brendan when it came to the joke competition. Throughout the first half, he and Gordon had been dealing as best they could with a potential heckler. Now heckling, audience participation, friendly banter, call it what you will, is all part of the stand-up comedy experience. This particular punter however hadn't quite grasped the concept and thought that it was par for the course to chat with the acts, ask them random questions and generally spend more time talking than the professionals up on stage. Brendan dealt with her expertly, and was given a helping hand from one of CH-uckles regular attendees – when it came to the joke competition, the winning punch-line was "I don't care, just tell that girl to shut up!" A winner in anyone's book and well worth the bag of goodies provided by sponsors Brit Shop.
The headline act was Matt Welcome, as laid-back a comedian as you could wish to come across whose word-play and puns were second to none. Who else would have realised that Paul McCartney was lack toes intolerant? (Hopefully this will get past Ms Mills' crack legal team...) Matt himself described his set as "top comedy stream of consciousness one-liners to a bunch of pissed-up people in the middle of nowhere" – a fair comment, as no-one outside of Switzerland will have heard of Zug other than those looking for a tax-haven. But with regular twin-bills of shows planned once a month on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Chicago from October onwards, Zug is destined to become comedy central as far as Switzerland is concerned.
