AFTER the glamour of appearing on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow for BBC One recently, this was back down to earth with a bump for Kevin Bridges. As he wryly noted, performing in the bottom of a boat felt like a dubious reward for his achievement
. And although he was as unstarry as ever, in truth, the Clydebank-born comic never quite found his sea legs here.
An appreciative crowd couldn't compensate for an early evening start and a needless interval robbed him of whatever momentum he was building. For such a young stand-up, he's already banked some fiercely impressive routines – his priest with Tourettes syndrome is always on hand to make a crowd erupt, while his versatile line about the abuse of a kettle is so bizarrely resonant it's virtually a signature gag. Elsewhere, he's smart and subtle highlighting the homoeroticism in army recruitment, while Glasgow's ever-present undercurrent of violence is never far from his thoughts, his vicious "dug" on a bus beautifully realised.
But one audience member's description of Susan Boyle seemed to throw him and he quit a perfectly good routine about council swimming baths, leaving it floundering without a punchline. He's also started employing more accents, with mixed results, in that he capably nails them yet seems in danger of subscribing to easy US-bashing.
Regardless, Bridges is too skilled and assured to ever come completely unstuck and this felt like him treading water before his Edinburgh Fringe debut.
The full article contains 252 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
