Our last show of the year at The Bell was G&B’s Nightmare Before Christmas show, our final outing for our dark delights theme, our evenings dedicated to comedy’s darker side. Well, this was an amazing night, possibly my favourite dark comedy show so far. Launching us into the void was the brilliant Declan Kennedy, a man who may or may not have been a test tube baby. It was then over to John Pape, the man without whom Premier christian radio will never been the same again. After John was Sam Mullen (pictured) and some tips on dinner lady dating for lovers of spotted dick. The gag machine that is Mark Rivlin was next with some dark punnery before Carl Reid wondered if the BeeGees are indeed the life savers we’ve been told they are. Our penultimate act was the mellifluous Barbara Fernandez and a little number about suffocating exes to overly friendly family members. Closing the show was the awesome Eoghan Collins and everything from Mrs Brown’s Boys to fear of the Gobbler and some wonderful barks of wisdom from his best mate.
After the break, and a little danger magic that snatched a card from the jaws of an animal trap, we got off to a great start thanks to the brilliant Anna Quinton and the joys of being a stepmom and the problems with disciplining an imaginary friend. Next was Sonny Savage who’s given up watching porn…on his phone…in public! We then had Nick Bain, who could have been Nick Bond, but his mom wasn’t gonna be anyone’s Pussy Galore. After Nick was Robert Williams and the titular evolution of his identity before Mani Ahmed let us know that no matter how desperate you might be, just know he’s not babysitter material. The evening’s penultimate act was the demonically dark Damian Krushner. Damian killed a puppy recently, but don’t worry, he made it look like and accident. Closing the show was the one and only Colin D.H. Smith. I always think it feels reductive to say what Colin does is comedy. It’s so, so much more than that. I love watching the audience when he’s on because they go from WTF! to submissive acceptance of the fact they’ve absolutely no idea what’s coming next, and loving every second of it. Wednesday’s storytelling experience (nope, even that doesn’t feel right, but if it kills me I’ll find something that fits) was a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette with an array of props that The bard could never have foreseen. Brilliant!
So that was our closing week at The Bell, and with our charity fundraiser on the Tuesday and our deliciously dark comedy night on the Wednesday, it was a great way to finish our year there. We’ll be back at The Bell on January 7th.