The 99 Comedy Club is a hidden gem in London’s Leicester Square. I was expecting a large room crowded with people. But the atmosphere was more intimate, and the fact that it was not full was a bonus. I also expected a young crowd – in their 20’s like me. But most people were older that I was.
The first of the four acts was Matt Green, followed by Kae-Kurd, Marlon Davis and Tez Ilyas. I was there for my favourite stand-up comedian, Kae-Kurd who as his name suggests is a British Kurd – like me.
Baby face Matt Green didn’t do much for me, though I did like some of the material that concerned his chaotic sex life. In one story he recounted the time his wife beckoned him upstairs at a friend’s party for what he hoped would be a sexual encounter, only to find that she’d broken the loo. Of course he couldn’t mend it and so not only did he suffer the disappointment of no sex, but he had to cover for his wife by telling his mate he had trashed his toilet.
Next up was Kae-Kurd, and I clapped like the proud fellow Kurd that I was. He was chatty and easy-going and had a way of turning simple experiences into really funny insights into the way we are. For example he recounted the time he went into Currys PC World and got offered a smart fridge that came with a video camera that meant you could check out the contents from your phone. His response was outraged. “Why would I want a fridge that can do that?” he asked, when for him (and for me as it turns out) the whole point of opening the fridge every few minutes is to hopefully find something you never knew was in there!
The worst act for me was Marlon Davis. I couldn’t work out if he was being serious or sarcastic, and some of his material – for example about a near-death experience – was simply not funny. Or maybe he just had a sense of humour that I could not grasp.
Last but not least was northern comic Tez Iylas, who comes from a Pakistani background. He was as idiotic on stage as he is in the BBC show Man Like Mobeen. The fact that I’m also not white British might account for why I related to his material, particularly when he discussed racism.
For instance he remembered the time when his five-year-old niece came home and told her mum she had been learning Punjabi in school, which her mum was stunned by as it was a Catholic school. When her mum asked what she had learned, the girl turned around and performed a typical Pakistani head shake whilst using a Punjabi accent to ask for something.
The way he told the story, and the shock of the ‘reveal’, made everyone laugh – but kind of out of shock too – that such racist stereotyping existed at his niece’s school.
My only complaint – and this is a warning for those of you who want to go – is that the seats are crammed too closely together, which can be claustrophobic. But overall I loved the experience. Seeing comics on TV and YouTube etc. is OK – but nothing like hearing them live.