Last updated at 15:27, Thursday, 14 February 2013

Patrick Monahan
Beggar’s Theatre, Millom, Friday, February 8

HILARIOUS Patrick Monahan ELLIS O’BRIEN

“NOT everyone gets the chance to play Millom twice!”

The irony isn’t lost on the Beggar’s Theatre audience.

Hardly somewhere you’d expect to feature prominently on most comedians’ tour schedules, this was the second year running that Teesider Patrick Monahan has pitched up in Millom.

His first appearance was undoubtedly a triumph, and he’s gone from being an almost unknown to a local favourite. Plenty of familiar faces from last time were in the crowd, with ‘The Doctor’ – the oldest and probably the tallest man in the room (Millom even?) – occupying the same seat 12 months on. Once more he was called upon to help out with a dance routine and Monahan shared a nostalgic moment with his elderly friend about childhoods spent rifling through the CDs and mischievously mixing up the easy listening and heavy metal sections.

He also relayed his journey to the venue, this time questioning the very existence of Foxfield. As a comic who travels exclusively by train, his journeys are a great source of material, enhanced by the fact that a rail boss was sitting two rows from the front.

There are many things with a Millom show that can throw a lesser comic, such as the fact that everyone in the crowd really does know everyone else. He plays on this fairly standard stereotype by identifying his victim’s friends and family to join in the jokes. It just wouldn’t happen in a larger community.

Comedians surely don’t encounter too many half-time raffle draws either – and this one was inevitably hijacked and turned into some kind of Blind Date by the night’s guest.

Though the show’s climax – a nightclub scenario set to Gangnam Style and adjudicated over by The Doc in his role as a horse racing tic-tac man – fell a little flat when the ‘winners’ of the blind date decided they didn’t like the look of what they’d been given, the encore proved to be the highlight. Recalling a recent news story where a bus driver found out he’d won the lottery while driving and walked out on a bus load of people, he said: “I’d do that in any job other than teacher. I wouldn’t walk out if I was a teacher. I’d stick around for the rest of the day and t**t the annoying kid around the head.”

Totally out of character for the mild-mannered Middlesbrough comic, and totally unexpected.

A hilarious conclusion to what can only be described as a triumphant return to Millom.

KARL STEEL

First published at 14:16, Thursday, 14 February 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk