Arthur Smith headlines a cracking evening of merriment.

Posted on 26th September 2021

Unavoidable absences are becoming so commonplace these days they hardly warrant a mention, but hats off to the three comedians that did make it to the Corn Hall for what was a slimmed down comedy night. They more than made up for those missing in action with a cracking evening of merriment.

Stephen Carlin seemed mildly bewildered to find himself roped into the role of MC, but had a fine old time bantering with a boisterous front row. The existence of Diss seemed to perplex and amuse him, not least how its relative gentility contrasted so starkly with his childhood tales of life in unreconstructed Glasgow. Similarly unreconstructed was Mad Ron, a gem of character comedy dreamt up by Steve Lee. Ron is not a man comfortable in the modern world, and won belly laughs for his deadpan reminiscences. Life just isn’t the same for Ron since the Sixties, when there was smoking, soap, and snooker ball filled socks to sort out the punters.

Headliner Arthur Smith must be close to being a national treasure by now, notwithstanding a ribald routine that covered Anne Wildecombe, chicken manure and all points in between. With lashings of faux grumpiness, a sprinkling of truly ancient jokes, and (perhaps most surprising of all) a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah this was a triumph of brass necked style over content. Smith made no secret of the need to catch the last train home, closing an evening that had zipped by. Far from feeling short changed, however, this was an object lesson in the maxim that sometimes less is more.