There’s doubting that there’s a new avenue to becoming a stand-up comic these days. Frenchy and fellow comedians such as Alex Williamson and Neel Kolhatkar have broken through on YouTube and Facebook, grown a loyal following from creating funny, shocking viral videos, then going on to use that fan base to begin regular touring.
With just under 1.4 million Facebook fans and hundreds of millions of views, there’s no doubt that Frenchy has the numbers to sell out shows around the country. Lining up for the show, it was an interesting group of people, with more face tattoos than your average comedy show. At 9:15 on a Saturday night, this crowd was far rowdier than the historic Athenaeum Theatre was accustomed to.
Frenchy bound onstage via the crowd and wasted no time going for the jugular by way of shock value. It was obvious early on that if you were offended by non-PC comedy, then this was not the show for you, something that Frenchy himself noted. His crowd interaction was solid, except for the fact he insisted on putting the mic up to the person he was talking to, which was not necessary for a big theatre let alone a room of a few hundred people. His ability to roll with the audience’s responses was impressive. Everyone he spoke to tried too hard to be funny, yet he managed it well.
Not content with just doing traditional stand-up, he also rapped (to mixed results) and played a few songs with a guitar which provided some of the most memorable highlights of the show. Unleashed was about as filthy as you’d imagine, and in a way more than it needs to be, however, he has a reputation from his videos to appear that way. It is a bit of a pity because his real appeal is his comedic timing which is spot as well as his ability to hold a crowd in the palm of his hand.
The show ran late and as such it ended rather abruptly. A guy down the back yelled out ‘my mate says I’m a shit cunt if I don’t do a shoey out of your shoe’. Unsurprisingly the show then ended with Frenchy and the attention seeker doing a shoey out of each other’s shoe. It was a poor ending. Sit down and shut up. It’s not about you. It marred what was a pretty enjoyable and fun Saturday night show.
By Alexander Crowden.
