He kicked off his set with some stunning party game ideas, a favourite of mine was his suggestion that you don a coat of armour, bury yourself on the beach and wait for the metal detector enthusiast to come along. When you are finally dug out Mr Evans recommends you utter “have we won?” in a cobwebby military voice. I forecast a spate of such incidents on Broad Haven sands.
Dan’s fast paced and intelligently delivered set raced between spaghetti hoop séances, dead puppies, hairy tennis players and Velcro courts and another fabulously invented game: cat buckaroo.
The evening’s hecklers, a bit more aggressive than usual, having sharpened their claws considerably on compere Dan Atkinson, were dealt with in fast, furious and gag-packed ripostes. And Span’s Declan, bringing water and a new mic stand to the funny man, became the inspiration for a good bit of impromptu improvisation.
Dan was supported by the man with the world’s biggest briefcase, George Egg, who started his set with minutes of silence and a mimed mock-magic show, brought to life with gestures and facial expressions.
All George’s gags were supported by props from his briefcase and, although funny, were very culturally specific. If you’ve never owned a ZX Spectrum or seen the obscure film then a lot of the gags just didn’t resonate.
I probably got off on the wrong foot with Egg’s humour as the Stephen Hawkins stuff left me a bit cold. The props got the laughs not the jokes; and some of the short set of fairly lazy comedy - delivered in a monotone - felt quite flat.
Saying that I did enjoy the silly card tricks and the Brighton toilet signs.
The evening was compered by Dan Atkinson, a shaggy, scruffy guy who I thought would be hilarious from his great publicity picture (scrabble pieces for teeth).
He was the victim of some fairly vicious heckling, and in his first set came over as a teacher who had lost control of the class - put off his train of thought by hecklers, and using lots of f-words to cover it up.
In his post interval set Atkinson got it back and endeared himself to his audience by agreeing with them “I am a prick”; before launching in to tales of buttock bowls, internet shopping and a great game called Who Won? that you can play with the wedding section of your local paper.
For me the evening’s comedy wasn’t over when headliner Dan Evans left the stage. In a dark Narberth car park our car thought it would be quite the gag to pack in. Luckily the lovely Gill and Gareth were on hand to take us home. This pair could be Pembrokeshire’s best double act, and the car was filled with cackles and shrieks of laughter all the way to Goodwick.
When Comedy Club season is over in nine days' time, I recommend you stick out your thumb and hitch a lift with Gill and Gareth. For laughter value they were up there with Dan Evans.
