Witty in the City

The Water Poet Cellar Bar, Bishopsgate, London
13th September 2007

I stumbled into this new, unfortunately named comedy night with fairly low expectations. I've spent many a wasted evening sitting in damp pub cellars listening to average comedians flogging their jokes to death, so naturally expected more of the same. However, I was treated to an evening of generally excellent comedy, opening with a strong set from Junior Simpson who instantly charmed the crowd with his tale of smuggling a fruit salad into Australia. Phil Dinsdale followed with a comparatively average set until the evening peaked with the fantastic Carey Marx (pictured). I can't recommend this guy strongly enough - he's a gagsmith of the highest order. Baiting the audience into begging him to tell his new joke about rape, he coolly retorted "nah, you had to be there". Masterful stuff. The evening then took another slight dip with the clearly nervous, if promising beginner Marlon Davis (who to be fair had an impossible job following Marx), before Paul Sinha rounded off with a consistently well-observed act based around the premise of being a butch asian homosexual in an increasingly confused world.

This is a promising comedy night in a great little venue, and if they sort the name out and find themselves a new compère they could be onto something.