Sean Grant & Kai Humphries

Opening the show, Kai Humphries’ nerves launch him straight into his act, somewhat devoid of context, and it’s a routine that makes you question whether the laughter impulse has really evolved much at all amidst mankind’s considerable other developments. Jokes about toilets, hard-ons and gingers form the bulk of his material, raced through with his palpable, if endearing, anxiousness. He’s likeable but frightened; to step beyond his prepared material, step beyond accepted joke territory, and intellectually challenge his audience. The audience stare jadedly back at his earnest delivery. Humphries is young and needs to take a few risks with his material, as all it gets now is weary laughter with an aftertaste of cynicism.

Nervous performers beget nervous spectators and next act Sean Grant eases the crowd by contrast. Grant’s refusal to talk fast or loud is reminiscent of the quiet slow confidence of Stewart Lee. Yet whilst, like Lee, his material is riven through with implicit rage, this is belied by his complacency. Perhaps Grant is just too at home in the Glasgow Buff Club, as he never appears to be addressing anyone other than his friends in a pub.  He needs to develop his jokes before it’s too late – right now they are delivered half-formed and cautious. He has the pacing and the persona but not yet the material.