Comedy

BBC Tees contributor David Amos

It’s the second Thursday of the month, and that means Catch 22 at The ARC. It means a compere and three comics. It means Dave Ingram, Ben Schofield, Damian Larkin and headline act Paul Sinha.

After a slightly confused start during which it became clear that he thought he was in Middlesbrough, Dave entered into a conversation with the occupants of the table that is inevitably the target for such conversations.

Now, I think I've mentioned this before but please, comedy fans, if you are going to sit at the target table be prepared, recognise that you WILL be spoken to and that your role in this interchange is to provide the comic with a source of material for him to develop.

Your role is NOT to attempt to make him uncomfortable, nor to attempt to score points off him. He is the one getting paid to be there.

Ben Schofield’s act was both entertaining and educational. His routine on “How to galvanize a dustbin” is probably not for discussion here, but do take the chance to see him if you want to know more.

A quick burst of Family Fortunes on the subject of “Cliches used in the act of dumping a long term partner” hit many high notes for the audience and Ben’s energy and material was greeted with plenty of laughter.

After a second dose of Dave Ingram, who had by now worked out where he was, Damian Larkin filled the gap between the two beer breaks of the evening with a quick burst of one-liner gags which were well delivered and generated a lot of laughter.

A second beer break followed by another burst of Dave Ingram led us to the absolute highlight of this and indeed many other evenings at The ARC.

Paul Sinha. Definitely the best Asian, Gay, Medical Practitioner on the comedy circuit anywhere!

To try and capture the humour in a review would be all but impossible. Certainly the task is beyond me.

As Paul himself said, he’s chubby and brown, not Chubby Brown. His act was a tour de force of humour and insightful observation about the state of the world today; picking up on the issues of homophobia, political correctness and racism.

The audience loved it. (apart from the one who appeared to have fallen asleep!).

So the Catch 22 crowd were up for a laugh and up for a bit of a mental challenge, they just needed the stimulus of a comic with something to say and the wit and courage to say it.

He reassured us that when the British Army is described as being tolerant and patient we can be confident that they are.

How else would James Blunt have survived his time in The Household Cavalry?