Pork & Pickle Pie Comedy Club

Taking a punt on relatively unknown stand-up comedians can result in about as much good cheer as discovering that your boiler has broken in the middle of winter.

But on the freezing Thanksgiving Stand-up Spectacular night at The Pork and Pickle Pie Comedy Club, the line-up managed to warm the cockles of my otherwise cold and shrivelled heart.

The allusion to the US tradition of marking their gratitude to the Native Americans for pinching their land was only really noticeable in the excellent turkey pie on the menu. In fact, the real reason for the night was to raise money for the local De Beauvoir Underground community centre. That and to showcase some genuinely promising up-and-coming comedic talent, gosh darn it!

Bouncing on stage to kick the show off was compere Elliot Tiney, who would not seem out of place presenting a CBeebies show. First up was floppy-haired Rob Beckett, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Boris Johnson. Beckett was quick to offset this by reading an amusingly long and surreal list of all the people he’s been mistaken for. Much better than the typical ‘I know what you’re thinking’ line favoured by most stand-ups. Refreshing and sharp, but sometimes bordering on bog standard observational reflections, Beckett is definitely someone to watch out for.

The other highlight in the first half was Jay Foreman. Watching his routine was the hardest I’ve laughed watching musical comedy since The Flight of the Conchords and Bill Bailey. His reggae style song about having a paranoia about Captain Birdseye was superb, as was Slightly Imperfect Girl, a piece about seeking a girlfriend whose flaws become increasingly bizarre as the song progresses. A joy.

But for me the standout performance was comedy sketch group the Beta Males. Well-written and delivered with precision, the troupe’s material was so good the guy next to me looked as if he were going to demolish the sofa, he was slapping its arm so hard. Their most hilarious sketch was about Michael Collins – the forgotten astronaut on the Neil Armstrong moon landing expedition – in which they talked about defecating in helmets and one of the members got naked on stage, while at the same time evoking a sense of pathos. Surely a sign of true art.

Ending the night was Eric Lampaert. Very much from the ‘stream of consciousness’ school of comedy, I enjoyed Lampaert’s set, but felt he still had some way to go to refine his style. Having said that he exuded a likeability and quick-wittedness that went down as well as the pub’s delicious pumpkin pie. I’m just hoping The Pork and Pickle Pie Comedy Club will come up with another excuse for a stand-up night soon.

Pork and Pickle Pie Comedy Club took place on Thursday 25th November at:

The Scolt Head
107A Culford Road
Dalston
N1 4HT