Monday night at The Star of Kings was our growing old Disgracefully night, a show for acts over 40 and audience’s who knew a world before t’internet. First up was the hilarious Barry Matthews, who’s been married the equivalent of four bank robberies or 7 pandemics. Next was Harun Musho’d and some advice for The Royals: Waterford Crystal dog bowls are potentially dangerous. After hard we had the dark horse that is Penny Castle, and everything from DBSM to laxer and the casual handling of a therapy gun. Peri Whyte then, well, Peri Whtyed the stage with some surreal fizziness before Elliot Curtis confessed he recently turned 50, which means he was born in…black and white. SJ Wyatt was next with news that she intends on crushing the neoliberal agenda…as soon as she finds out what that is. No Growing old Disgracefully show would be complete without a real G&B favourite, Jimbo. Well, Jimbo was on fine form last night and the audience got a lot more of him than expected. Closing the first half we had Mark Vincent, the man with the pumpkin sized prostate. Mark went to Glastonbury last year but was disappointed by the dealers. Not one had any Statins.
After the break and a bit of arty mind reading we had the bizarre brilliance of Steve Vertigo and his constant fear that as he gets older he might suffer from early onset xenophobia. Olivia Gadd was next with how to visualise yourself all the way to physiotherapy before Gordon MacSween took the piss with some Dragon’s Den tales of business genius. Sharon Jackson then told us how she spent more time in the bath last year than Liz truss did in Downing Street. After Sharon was the musical marvel that is Barbara Fernandez who was told by a therapist that she needed more mindfulness. She told him she’d prefer more MDMA. It was then over to Tony Carr, who took us down memory lane to a time where every good home had a pair of pliers to change TV channels. The evening’s penultimate act was Theresa Bradstreet and just why they don’t make tomboys to last; she keeps wearing hers out. Closing the show we had the wonderful Paul Merryck (pictured). Paul admits now at his age any compliment he gives a lady come across as a bit creepy. Doesn’t stop him being a bit of a ladies man and if you’re a bit lonely, desperate even, Paul is happy to give you his full romance package complete with double rom at a Holiday Inn Express. Who could refuse such an offer. Brilliant stuff.
So that was last night and what a great audience they were. Next Monday we have G&B’s Dark Delights show, our evening celebrating comedy’s darker side.