Best of Edinburgh Fest features three mainstream comedians: Chris Martin, John Hammond and Jimmy McGhie. Martin plays on being the sweet boy adjusting to life with a live-in partner. He’s 28 and in his first serious relationship. He’s got a nice turn of phrase, using some old-fashioned expressions like ‘frowned upon.’ He tells a story about taking a roast chook to a nightclub and attempting to scare his partner in the dark.
The three of them are nice boys, white boys, straight boys, boys you could take home to your mum, to your grandma even. Except maybe that John Hammond…he’s got a quirky personality and a darker edge than the others and comes out with things you won’t have heard before. He’s skilled at using audience members to hang his comedy on – in the way Rich Hall does – and he has the most original imagination of them all. His stories are paced more slowly but when you do laugh, you’re really laughing. He makes mention a few times about being born three months premature, which isn’t interesting until the end where he pays it off with some startling info. Hammond is definitely the most original and charismatic of the three.
McGhie is the most typical comedian, you’ve seen his type over and over again; he took a while to warm up but he’s certainly funny, and tells a good story about shopping, getting fit and some really funny riffs on Melbourne hipsters. The avocado routine was priceless. Crowd-pleasers.
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
