Comedy Countdown

Comedy Countdown

Something of a let-down, this; I went three times last year and was blown away by what some funny men (and women, but mostly men) had done to one of my favourite pastimes from my childhood.

Dan Atkinson, last year’s high-haired host, isn’t in town until the 23rd, so Toby Williams, an ecology graduate now trading as comic George Ryegold, drunkenly stumbled his way through the hour as Richard Whiteley. Thank goodness for the ‘regulars’ from last year: for those who have never had the pleasure of Countdown…look on Youtube. Here, Paul Sinha fixed the letters, desperately leaving a gap between ‘G’ and ‘Y’ but the ‘A’ never came – not even the letters were propitious. Contestants Stuart Goldsmith and Sarah Millican did their best, and the clock, played by Skins castmember Joel Dommett, danced along to both the traditional theme and some well-selected themes (tank engines, for instance) while moving his arm 180 degrees.

For a newcomer to the show, however, the shambles probably added to Marcel Lucont’s made-up French words (including a brilliant one mocking how English doesn’t have a word for having a lie-down after saying something sarcastic) and James Sherwood’s anagrams (Williams became a sequel to the film ‘My Two Balls’, put in the ‘I’s for happiness) provided glee and applause, and perhaps the point is that it’s a drunken shambles. For the purist like James, who got a big laugh when saying “I remember when this game MEANT something!”, it’s a pastiche, but what a great way to be entertained after midnight (on Mondays and Tuesdays only) and a great advertisement for each comedian’s individual shows.

Sarah’s defeat was made more palatable by the fact of her ‘extra date’ for her sell-out show, but Stu was just pleased to have ‘nailed’ her.

Comedy Countdown
Gilded Balloon Teviot
00:15 23-24 August