On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending another Comedy Unleashed event at the Hi-Fi Comedy Club in Leeds. After my last review of this gig, Andy Shaw, who runs Comedy Unleashed along with Andrew Doyle, kindly invited my brother and me to come along as guests. It was worth every minute of the journey from Hull to West Yorkshire. The line-up was a cracker: Darius Davies, Wilson Milton, Kelli! Taylor, Victor Daniels and a special guest. We could not have asked for more.
Darius was the MC and he was outstanding. He warmed up the audience with endless gags and created a real buzz heading into each act. His funny life stories, interactions with the audience and jokes set a high standard for the night. His ability to extemporise gags to fill in time was also impressive, and he kept the flow going between the acts. One of his standout points was about banter and racism. He argued that being able to make jokey remarks about different cultures actually helped to combat racism a few decades ago. Now, due to the rise in cancel culture, banter is dwindling – which is actually increasing tensions between different ethnic and religious groups. Bringing back this sort of banter, he argued, would make society healthier.
Wilson Milton was up first. He was filling in for Francis Foster, who was filming a Triggernometry podcast. Not to worry, though – Milton was just as funny as Foster. He was particularly good at accents, managing to imitate some risky ones, including Jamaican, Indian and Chinese, which he nailed. Milton claimed he was not up to date with the news and didn’t even own a TV, but his act was still able to land some topical gags, highlighting many everyday British absurdities – such as Lego removing toy pigs from its farm set so as not to offend British Muslims. It was hilarious.
Next, we had a surprise visit from the Gorton and Denton MP, Hannah Spencer, who told us about all the great policies the Green Party is going to introduce if it wins the next election. In addition to legalising drugs, she said the Greens want to abolish prisons because they are such dangerous places. In reality, of course, this was the wonderful Intel Lady yet again impressing with her note-perfect impressions of left-wing politicians.
Kelli! Taylor, the mad hairdresser from Hull, was up next. She was supposedly promoting her hair and beauty salon, which she claims is the best in Hull as it offers eyebrow, waxing and vajazzle treatments. She regaled us with stories of the awkward and rude customers she has had to deal with over the years, which were hilarious. We ended up having a bit of back and forth after she asked if there was anyone from Hull in the audience and I put up my hand. Kelli! claimed to have known our mum and called her a moody customer who was always complaining. This was a sketch, obviously, but her ‘Ull accent was superb and she had the audience in stitches.
Victor Daniels ended the show with a bang. As a black comedian, he instantly started challenging our supposedly racist assumptions, and joked that we probably thought he had just been added to the line-up to make it more diverse, ensuring the gig didn’t get cancelled. He then went straight into various stories, including many about his relationships. I particularly enjoyed his account of showering in a woman’s bathroom and accidentally using the wrong shampoo. He was also excellent at accents and joking about different cultural quirks. Although it was late into the night and the audience was beginning to fade, he was able to intensify the laughter and ended the show on a high.
Comedy Unleashed never disappoints. It is the only showcase for comedians keeping free-thinking comedy and political satire alive. It needs all the support it can get if we are to keep this quintessentially British brand of comedy alive. Our society would be poorer without it. I could not think of a better way to spend a Friday night.
Comedy Unleashed has a big show at the Working Men’s Club in Knaresborough later this month. Buy yourself a ticket. You’ll thank me later.
Jack Watson is a 17 year-old schoolboy from Hull. You can read his Substack about supporting Hull City FC – now a Premier League team! – here.
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So if you don’t write a glowing review, Andy Shaw won’t invite you as a guest anymore?
Here’s another review of “racist assumptions” Ethnic African Victor Daniels from earlier in his career, by Steve Bennett:
“Decent enough stuff, but that spark that distinguishes the brilliant from the workaday was missing – or at least flickering only weakly.”
“But his closing routine is his downfall : reading from a Noddy book, as if it had been written by a black author. Noddy wakes in the afternoon, has a ‘Jamaican breakfast’ of one big spliff, gets the munchies and collects his Giro. Not perhaps the most insightful of comedy but, more crucially, only sporadically funny.”
But maybe actually accurate about Jamaicans
Sad to miss it this time! It would have been my fourth visit to the Hi-fi Club 😂 I’ll never forget my first attendance, Alistair Williams and Graham Linehan and Dominic Frisby all in one night. I left breathless.