London,

Jo Brand

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Description: The star of C4's Through The Cakehole and BBC's Celebrity Fame Academy with her trademark acerbic stand-up.

 

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Jo Brand's tell-by date

 

Toweringly good: Despite a few gags past their tell-by date, Jo Brand was in droll form

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It might not have been a cutting-edge comedy festival but the first Pimm’s Summerfest certainly had its moments. The sun mostly shone. The acts were mostly a hit. Shows were mostly sold out. And enough cucumber-tinged cocktails were drunk to refloat the Titanic. The closing highlight was Jo Brand, a big cheese who currently seems to steer clear of London gigs in favour of frothy television. While the latter pays well enough to keep her in buns this is a shame because the ex-psychiatric nurse is a superb stand-up, totally at ease, despite — or perhaps because of — hearing difficulties that meant in this large venue she missed occasional alcohol-fuelled heckles.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Brand’s performance, but for anyone who might have seen her onstage in the past few years there was a fair smattering of deja vu. Greatest-hits gags about getting clothes from Ann Widdecombe’s skip, jibes about Trinny and Susannah and references to training for the London Marathon all felt a little past their tell-by date.

Yet when she is good she is very, very good and Brand was toweringly good when it came to romance and food.

I particularly liked her droll quip that “men are driven by testosterone, women by Toblerone.” Her hubby is the punchline of a lot of persuasive routines too, a seaside-postcard combination of sex pest and numbskull.

Other acts on Saturday highlighted the differences between working stand-ups and telly regulars. Reg Hunter and Jeff Green arrived fresh from Edinburgh runs brandishing miles of strong 2008 material, while Chris Addison, recently busy with the BBC sitcom Lab Rats, also presented a pick-and-mix of old and new.

But these critical quibbles did not rain on the crowd’s parade. The upmarket audience laughed heartily at every wisecrack hurled at their poshness. Addison probably summed it up best when he said that it felt so much like a middle-class dinner party he was embarrassed he had not brought a bottle of wine.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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