Thursday 8 October 2009

Comedy without the front-row target!

Saw the very funny and talented Michael McIntyre last night at the Birmingham NIA and I really enjoyed it, was refreshing to see a comedian without a political agenda. This was a comedic routine of personal tales without trashing a country, celebrity, politician or member of the audience in the dreaded front-row.

I do enjoy the close to the bone comedians such as Frankie Boyle but having being on the receiving end of that acid tongue then I am more wary of it..

I asked my mother to book tickets to see Frankie Boyle last year in Port Talbot and she did which was great. When we got the tickets we were front row. The Princess Royal Theatre (makes you think of a grand Barbie-esque venue.. it's a **** hole) is only a small venue and I felt physically sick at the thought of that...

On the evening we got to the front row.. and the seats were dead centre... if things couldn't get any worse they certainly did then. We were on the front-line of a battle against the stand-up, praying on his mercy.. they might as well have given us a helmet and ration pack, it was going to be a long night.

So the warm up guy came out, some American who picked mercilessly on the family next to me and then of course it was our turn, his eyes locked on the next target... The Boy (TB) sat with me and he was picked on too. Survived it.. just...

Then Frankie Boyle who came out and waited a full 30mins until finally picking on me and TB.. what he said I cannot really remember, I braced myself for the barrage of insults and literally froze. I think I stopped breathing, my internal organs were quivering, my eyes locked onto him and my ears were suddenly blocked. I picked out the words "gay" and "eat him alive" and that's about it.

Why should a night out meant to be filled with laughter have to be filled with dread? the rest of my evening was sort of ruined and relaxing was not an option. No SOS flag could be waved.

So please dear comedians, we don't pay £20+ to be verbally abused.... I crawled out of the comedy trenches and patched my bruised ego but the fear runs deep....

Love, SGS xoxo




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