The Sprout

Cardiff Comedy Festival - A Hit!

Posted by Stormer007 from Cardiff - Published on 23/08/2010 at 13:24
4 comments » - Tagged as Comedy, Culture, Festivals, School Holiday Activities, Stage

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I, like many teenagers my age, have the impossible task of finding something interesting to do over the Summer Holidays. Every other year, I have failed, and found myself waddling back to school with a sad expression on my face and an uninteresting story to tell my friends.

Fortunately, this year I succeeded in completing the impossible task. Whilst searching for something to do in the Cardiff area on the internet, I found myself being drawn to Cardiff Central Library for a Stand Up Comedy Workshop which was run by the organiser of the Cardiff Comedy Festival, Scott T Fitzgerald.

It was brilliant. I had a fantastic day. And I thought it would be just that. A single day. How wrong I was. I soon found myself at O’Neill’s for the next 3 evenings, performing at the Library and was even contacted by the South Wales Echo as an aspiring comedian myself regarding an article on the whole event.

After seeing some pretty damn funny comedians at O’Neill’s on Trinity Street, I was really looking forward to watching the Grand Gala of the Cardiff Comedy Festival at St David’s Hall. The prospect of meeting the star of the show, Mr Rhod Gilbert himself, also had me worked up into a comedy frenzy.

A woman from the South Wales Echo heard about the Cardiff Comedy Festival and saw the opportunity to write a story about the young comedians who had attended the workshop. She subsequently arranged for my friends and I to meet Rhod Gilbert and have photos taken with him for her article.

I arrived at St David’s Hall at around 6 o clock to have a photo taken with the comedic Rhod Gilbert. He also helped us with not-so-little gems of advice about making a career out of comedy. He was thoroughly entertaining and surprisingly down to earth. I was, however, very disappointed when I learnt that the voice I was hearing on Live at the Apollo had been exaggerated and was not in fact his real voice. Shame but a valuable lesson in showmanship gratefully imparted.

We soon took our seats and waited as the rest of the audience entered the Hall and began chatting excitedly. The atmosphere was one of intense energy but it soon turned into a low hush as the lights went down and the curtain came up.

The crowd roared as Mr Gilbert walked on stage with his usual swagger and welcoming smile. The audience exploded into laughter as Rhod went on and on about potatoes. After his rant and rave, he introduced us to some fantastic comedians, Lloyd Langford and Lucy Porter. Langford brought his amusing views on, of all things, people from the Valleys. His funny stories and quirky impressions had the sides of the whole audience splitting.

Next up, Mrs Porter (now bearing child) decided to talk to us about her pregnancy, much to the delight of a major part of the crowd who found her performance most amusing! We were also graced by the presence of the great Matt Price who told us about the time he performed at a Mental Institution. His hilarious gags and quick one liners had the whole audience begging for more.

Following the interval, Rhod Gilbert let out his frustration towards toothbrushes with computers on them. Although much to his surprise, and the delight of the audience, no-one had a clue what he was talking about. But the audience still relished, roaring with laughter as he got angrier and angrier with the whole debacle.

With his blood pressure ever on the rise, he decided to calm down and introduce us to the winner of the festival's competition which searches high and low for the best un-signed comedian in Wales. Or in this case, comedienne. Yes, we then introduced to Ms Taylor Glenn, who talked (and rapped) to us about, of all things on God’s green Earth, masturbation. The audience and I took great pleasure in listening to her and as she went on, the euphoria in the room kept building up and up, until not long after the room burst into laughter. Hmmm. My apologies.

The headliner act gave me much pleasure as I am a huge fan of silly impressions of stereotypes. That’s probably why I am such a huge Eddie Izzard fan, and Craig Campbell, who flew in all the way from Canada, did not disappoint in the slightest. I assume the audience was laughing, but I can’t be too sure as I was laughing so loudly myself I found myself missing half of his jokes. I really will go and see him again should the opportunity arise.

We had the good fortune of being back stage after the show thanks to Mr Fitzgerald. I had the great fortune of meeting the stars of the show, and even sharing some cheese with Mr Campbell. Meeting them was truly a great honour and it was certainly one memorable evening. I certainly hope that Scott T Fitzgerald will organise the Cardiff Comedy Festival again next year. He did one hell of a job this year.