Situated across the street from Upper Fisher Row and just a ten-minute walk from the Stanford House, The Glee Club Oxford is a charming venue for a night of live comedy. Tickets are £13 for adults, but at just £5 for students the Glee Club is hard to beat on a budget.
Though the performers were obviously the highlight of the show, the venue was a character in and of itself. The orange and yellow theme not only dictated the wall color, but the color of the seats, tables, and the front of stage as well. The large white letters spelling ‘glee’ at the front of the club were bathed in a warm, oozing yellow light that evoked a psychedelic lava lamp. The whole venue feels like a tongue-in-cheek 70s throwback, and encourages jokes and prods even before the comedy begins. The bartenders were friendly (and apologized profusely when they couldn’t get any pressure to the Amstel tap), as were the waitstaff.
Maff Brown was the first comedian onstage and served as our host throughout the night. The frizzy-haired comic had an easy way about him, joking at both the audience’s expense and at his own, though always more kind than malicious. His jokes were good but it was his delivery made him one of the standouts of the night; he was completely comfortable onstage, working in and out of jokes like a professional. As a host he was upbeat and lively, getting the audience warmed and riled up for each act that came after him.
The second comic, Dave Twentyman, is hard to have an opinion on. He was charming and endearing, but his Scottish accent was so thick that neither I nor my date could understand him. Granted, his last joke we did get (if only because it had to do with phalluses, and those are the kinds of jokes that are easiest to understand), but much of his humor was aimed at the local crowd and, as Americans, it went mostly over our heads. It went over well with the audience, which didn’t seem to have any problem understanding him, but unless you were a local most of his jokes were not applicable.
The third comic, however, was a revelation. Nick Helm’s brand of comedy was abrasive, fear inducing, crass, punchy, and gut splitting. He stormed on the stage and announced in his raspy, deep, self-deprecating, angry yell, “Good news! It’s me!” He then started berating a man he picked from the audience. “Do you like jokes?” he yelled, “Do you like jokes? Do you like jokes? Do you like jokes?” Everyone in the audience was roaring as the poor man finally said “Yes, I like jokes,” to which Helm responded, “Good! I’ve got six of the cunts!” It’s hard to describe the delicate mix between offensive, frightening and hilarious Helm managed to achieve. He angrily yelled a song that’s lyrics went, “I love you, you love me, we love each other, we’re family.” The disparity between what Helm was saying and how he was saying it was the source of his comedy—it was like watching someone occupy two personalities at once. Helm did not break character once, and at the end the audience was left wondering whether or not the depressed, angry man who just screamed at them for 20 minutes was the real Helm or not. Either way, his act broke through the barriers of the safe, storytelling comedy we are all familiar with, and created for Helm a space which he can wholly call his own.
Seann Walsh had the unfortunate task of following Helm’s act. He did an admirable job and was a good, if conventional, comic, but after having been brought to tears by Helm the audience did not respond nearly as well to Walsh’s familiar brand of comedy.
The Glee Club has locations in Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham and Oxford, and has live shows every Saturday night.
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