Strange objects, strange behaviour and strange music were the order of the evening at this week’s Pleasance Comedy Club, where an unusually small crowd were treated to an unconventional and enjoyable performance by Danny Ward and Christian Reilly.

After enthusiastically bounding onto the stage and shaking hands with the front row, opener Danny Ward set the tone for his bizarre set by promptly scrubbing himself with hand sanitiser, and staring down the riff-raff with whom he had just been in contact.

The Plymouth native then embarked upon a set marked by Ward’s own unique brand of audience participation – “what do you do?” he would ask, “Economics”, would be the response of the hapless audience member, only to be greeted with, “so you’re a mechanic are you?” .

For all its unoriginality, Ward’s over-played lack of interest in his audience went down well. As the night progressed numerous members of the intimate crowd had their names placed in Ward’s little black book, as he jumped spontaneously from jolly conversationalist to stern disciplinarian.
While a little light on truly enthusiastic laughter, Ward’s neurotic style of comedy was warmly received by the regulars at the Cabaret Bar, who no doubt sympathised greatly with the contents of Ward’s finale, a treatise on the perils of the random goods aisle at Lidl.

The kooky atmosphere created by Ward was perpetuated by the arrival of headliner Christian Reilly, who for the first time this year brought musical comedy to the Pleasance.

Strumming his way through a brutally honest series of musical impersonations (James Brown’s last words? “I feel bad”), Reilly brought his music into discussions of love in all its forms, from the mundane to the filthy.
Musically talented and with an excellent sense of self, Reilly held court while singing, but was let down by the slightly dull stand-up which came between the musical interludes.

Throughout a set which often pushed the boundaries of good taste in a way that only a filthy song can, Reilly utilised his guitar, voice and face to bend the audience to his will.

Indeed, what had been a quiet audience at the night’s commencement raucously demanded the latter when given a choice by Reilly between a “safe” or “edgy” song to close the evening. And given the often clean-cut nature of student audiences, to provoke such demands is no mean feat.  

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