Dag Soras, Matt Green, Eric Lampaert, David Mullholland and Richard Brophy

There’s a fun atmosphere at London’s Soho Comedy Club on this Friday the 13th. The sold-out audience, tightly packed into the Comedy Pub’s upstairs function room, are lively but fun. There are a few heckles, especially when compere Kate Smurthwaite invites interaction, but the contributions are always constructive, sometimes rather funny. It is, in short, near-perfect comedy crowd.

Australian Richard Brophy rides their goodwill, with simple, unchallenging stand-up that entertains, though lacks ambition to do more than press the buttons. At one point during his lightweight routine, he mentions being en route to a CBBC audition – and you can see that that his clean-cut looks, easy confidence and charming affability would allow him to fit the mould of a children’s TV presenter. In fact, he’s one of those acts who – fairly or not – you feel is using stand-up for a route into television, rather than as an end in itself.

There’s not much that’s outstanding in his act, with much made of the fact he comes from somewhere hot and he’s noticed that the British weather’s a bit shit. There’s some comments about the wealth of free newspapers in the capital (possibly getting its last outing given LondonLite closed that very day) leading to some inconsequential nonsense, and a longer routine about going to a health clinic for an intimate test, a scenario that’s a staple of quite a few comics’ sets.

Despite the often bland observations, Brophy can come up with some sharply funny lines – and he’s technically very accomplished. But he doesn’t have much material of distinction, despite being a personable character.

As soon as Matt Green takes to the stage, you know he has to immediately address his looks – young, weedy and whiter than the BNP’s mailing list – so breaks the ice with some effective, self-deprecating lines about his never-seen-a-gym physique. He is the sort of man who apparently becomes the object of curiosity for young children while out grocery shopping, but he retells the encounter with an endearing wit.

He is, in fact, a talented yarn-spinner, as amply demonstrated by his routine about seeing a rat fall into a rubbish sack on a railway station platform. It’s not immediately obvious that this will provide the basis for seven or so minutes of comedy gold, but Green sets the scene evocatively, and patiently teases out the laughs.

Even when he’s on more familiar territory – such as his closing thoughts about the ridiculous ‘contains mild peril’-style warnings printed on movie posters, he makes it better than expected, thanks to some choice examples. A solidly funny act.

Next on the international bill is American David Mulholland, who addresses his New Orleans roots with a smart opening gag. However, much of his set seems compromised: feeling the urge to do political material about his homeland, but stymied by Obama’s popularity – at least in the UK – leaving him only with a few standard lines about not having to be ashamed of being from the States any more.

Instead we get routines about David Cameron’s approach to the banking crisis (astute, if not all that funny), on how America wouldn’t stand for speed cameras (OK, but overstated in a too-long routine) and suicide bombers and their 72 virgins (Oh god, not again. Yes, we know you really want someone with experience…)

His delivery is authoritative, making it sound like he’s making a convincing case, but the material needs more depth, especially given that he’s competing with the glut of topical material that punters will hear all over the airwaves.

Relative newcomer Eric Lampaert delivers one of those Russell Brand-inspired over-exaggerated performances so beloved of yoof-TV casting agents. Indeed, MTV chose his distinctive features to front their irritatingly catchy ‘Up Your Viva’ ads, prompting the inevitable repetition of the catchphrase from the audience the moment he stepped on stage.

Actually ‘irritatingly catchy’ isn’t a bad description of his act, either. By rights, the deliberate posturing and obvious attempts at creating a persona that screams ‘I’m so crazy – just look at my random streams of consciousness’ should come across as indulgent zaniness. Indeed, when I last saw him a few months ago, it did.

But he’s growing into the persona and is now likeable and engaging, sweeping up the audience in the sheer energy of his performance. There’s not actually much material to speak of, but the strength of his scatty character rips through the room like a mini-hurricane, destroying complacency and raising the spirits. He might yet end up as a face of E4, but he could just as easily develop into an impressive comedian.

The slightly Gothy-looking Dag Soras (pictured) comes from the bleak north of Norway, and he has the disposition to match the unforgiving climate, with a jet-black set that touches all the keystones of bad-boy comedy: abortion, midgets, porn, drinking heavily…

At times, this can seem like he’s just going through the checklist, making sure he’s got all the usual bases of offensive covered, but his grim nihilism brings a crucial sense of authenticity to his dark attitude. For every nasty-for-nasty’s sake line delivered through his alcoholic haze comes a moment of grim reality.

There are some good routines here, most notably his stand-out routine about masturbating in the presence of his dog. But he openly frets that he’s used his killer material too soon, and for the rest of the set struggles to regain momentum, not helped by his constant drawing attention to the fact.

Some of these other routines are underpowered, most notably on atheism, which is fast becoming an unadventurous route for comedians. The primitive, irrational belief in higher powers is so easy to mock that it’s not edgy – in fact, in most comedy audiences nowadays, delivering such material is preaching to the (un)converted, and needs an extra twist to stand out.

But there are also plenty of brutally funny lines in his set which, if focussed, could make him a quite a force in sick comedy. Soras is increasingly making trips to these shores, so the development of his English-language set is likely to prove interesting.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

Published: 15 Nov 2009