Adam Flood & Blake AJ: Joke Boys | Mumble Comedy

Adam Flood & Blake AJ: Joke Boys | Mumble Comedy

Skip to content

Mumble Comedy
Surveying International Comedy

Menu
Mumble HQ
Comedy
Cirque
Theatre
Music
Opera
Art
Festivals
Words
Musicals
Skyflyers

HomeAdam Flood & Blake AJ: Joke Boys

Adam Flood & Blake AJ: Joke Boys

August 16, 2019August 16, 2019 yodamo
Edinburgh 2019

PBH Southsider
August 16-19, 21-24 (19:00)
Material:  Delivery:   Laughs:   Room:

Watching hundreds of hours of new comedy a year, there is nothing quite as pleasurable as discovering unpolished, glittering little nuggets of raw talent. This evening, panning in the Yukon-esque wilds of The Southsider, I found 2 such rarefied wee chunks of the golden stuff. I’ve not had as much time as during previous Fringe’s to check out acts performing in the now oft neglected PBH Free Fringe. In its heyday I would greedily snap up and consume their program as soon as it was released, scouring it for peculiar novelty clowning acts, club scene regulars looking for their big break, or former seasoned professionals delivering a swansong performance, somewhere in a pub off The Royal Mile at 1AM So it was with a genuine sense of excitement that I cycled up to The Southsider, to grab a cheap pint and a ‘free’ show. This was in essence a classic 2-hander, a pair of gigging mates teaming up to head North and try out their material on the hordes of arts fans and tourists that engulf The Athens of the North in August. Though unlike almost every other 2-hander I’ve watched, they took to the stage together, beginning as a double act. Here, as at the end of the show and during the highly entertaining middle section, they showed off their comedy personas with bravado.
Flood greets us first, embodying a confident Low Status performer. If that sounds oxymoronic, well, that’s the point. Low status is notoriously difficult to get right. But throughout the evening he delivered assured snippets of impressions, songs, and anecdotes deeply reminiscent of Ricky Gervais performing as Andy Millman in ‘When the Whistle Blows’. Except funny, very very funny.  A section covering well-trodden ground of ‘accents being misunderstood by machines’ was elevated by his commitment to the vocal gymnastics required to convey an impenetrable Midlands accent , whilst an impression of Stoke’s own wannabe Tom Cruise in Cocktail, generated so much laughter from Floods rubber faced buffoonery that he let it continue, hypnotically, for a full 20 seconds longer than he real ought to have had any right to. “I’ll just do this bit all night shall I?” he asked the crowd. The cheer they threw up created the perfect punchline for him to close the section on. It was a shame then that not all of his set landed as successfully as this. His material delivered ‘as self’ felt a little lacking in the absence of the facial comedy masterclass that we had already been served.. A well crafted, but stoically delivered, 3 minutes about being grown up enough to buy a cast iron sieve, and cocaine, fell to light titters. They wanted more of the Goon.

READ  An Interview with Samantha Pressdee | Mumble Comedy

Blake on the other hand came jumping out onto the stage in a faux fur pimp jacket, effortlessly channeling a squawky, confident, ‘Cat’ from Red Dwarf. His set was the polar opposite of Floods, some very neatly observed, and original, material relating to his mixed heritage swam in daring territory. If you’ve ever wondered why people with mixed heritage ‘aren’t into BDSM’, Blake will duly educate you. You see he used to be a teacher, and his tales of experiencing racial prejudice from Vietnamese kids named Captain America were both boundary pushing, and highly original. Here though was the fly in Blake’s ointment, his delivery was a little too teachery. The initial bombast of his stage entrance gone once he kicked into his practiced routine. The crowd seemed unsure how to take some of the changes of direction, but the wonderful banter, and anarchic spirit, present in their performances when double teaming, weren’t quite there when they got into the scripted stuff. Both performers fed exceptionally well off the positive energies from the audience, but didn’t always seem quite sure how to switch the pace when sections didn’t land as well.
Those tag team moments though, well what a treat. They oversaw a mid-show auction, with a gag at its heart of beautiful simplicity, in which they again demonstrated an assured command of just how long to milk an audience response. Their closing song pleasantly portentous, as Blake clowned around playing a triangle, manic grin plastered  on his face and Flood, bashing away at his guitar and gurning  like the kid from This is England, on Ecstasy, blasted out “For now we’re just Adam and Blake, but you might see us on TV someday”.
 “Yeah” I thought to myself “ I think we probably will”
Give them another few years to craft their individual performances and hone the exceptionally wide variety of talents on display, or better still, go the whole hog and perform exclusively as a double act, and this pair will polish up nicely into 24 Carat Fringe regulars.
Ewan Law

READ  Horseplay Bareback | Mumble Comedy

Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading…

Related

Post navigation
← Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Culture Jack Tucker: Comedy Stand Up Hour →

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here…

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)

Name (required)

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account.
( Log Out / 
Change )

You are commenting using your Google account.
( Log Out / 
Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account.
( Log Out / 
Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account.
( Log Out / 
Change )

Cancel
Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email.

Search for:

Selected Posts: 2013-19

FUNNY WOMEN AWARDS – WINNERS ANNOUNCED

An Interview with Cat Alvarado

An Interview with Rob Gee

Njambi McGrath: Accidental Coconut

Darius Davies: Persian of Interest

Twonkey’s Ten Year Twitch

Jez Watts: Absolute Zero

Meatball Séance

Bad Boys

Will Rowland: Cocoon

Our 2014 Poster

Steve N Allen: Better Than

An Interview with The Establishment

An Interview with Eli Matthewson

Alex Farrow: Philosophy A-Level

Nathan Cassidy: Observational

Matt Hobs BSc (Bristolian of Science)

An Interview with Hopwood DePree

MTT: Dinner With Comedians

Robyn Perkins: Mating Selection

An Interview with Steve N. Allen

Aaron Twitchen: Can’t Stop a Rainbow

Jack Tucker: Comedy Stand Up Hour

Adam Flood & Blake AJ: Joke Boys

Baba Brinkman’s Rap Guide to Culture

Mark and Haydn: Llaugh

Sunjai Arif: Which Princess Are You?

Will Penswick: Nørdic(k)

Jon Long: Planet-Killing Machine

Naomi Karavani: Dominant

Grandad’s Grandad-Themed Family Reunion

Richard Wright Is Just Happy to be Involved

Byron Bertram: Passport and Prozac

Any Suggestions Doctor? The Improvised Doctor Who Parody

Lolly Jones: I Believe in Merkels

Jeroen Bloemhoff: A List of 100 Things That Unreasonably Annoy Me

Jim Campbell: Beef

Robin Morgan: What a Man, What a Man, What a Man, What a Mighty Good Man (Say It Again Now)

Flora Anderson: Romantic

The Dots

Anesti Danelis: Six Frets Under

Ollie Horn: Pig in Japan

Alasdair Beckett-King: The Interdimensional ABK

Cry Babies: Danger Brigade

Eli Matthewson – An Inconvenient Poof

Harriet Braine: Les Admirables

Erich McElroy: Radical Centrist

Martha McBrier: Happiness Bully

Joe Bor: The Story of Walter & Herbert

AJ Holmes: Yeah, But Not Right Now

Expanding the Mumbleverse

Tania Edwards: Don’t Mention It

Konstantin Kisin: Orwell That Ends Well

Gary G Knightley: Twat Out Of Hell

READ  Shirley and Shirley: Late Night Lock In | Mumble Comedy

Black Sheep

Luke Rollason’s Infinite Content

Snack Chat

Oleg Denisov: Russian Troll

Myra Dubois: Dead Funny

An Interview with Erich McElroy

Hurst Schmurst

James Barr: Thirst Trap

Fat Blast and Crackers: 101 Sketches in 50 minutes

Wit & Mirth

Sonia Aste: Made In Spain 2

Joe Jacobs: Grimefulness

Elizabethan

Troy Hawke: Tiles of the Unexpected

An Interview with Scribbling Ape

Privates: A Sperm Odyssey

Langston Kerman: Loose Cannon

The Wonder Jam

An Interview with Black Sheep

Chris Washington: Raconteur

The Establishment: Le Bureau de Strange

Men With Coconuts

Brandi Alexander

A Jewish Sexagenarian and a Liverpudlian Plumber Walk into a Bar…

Louisa Fitzhardinge: Comma Sutra

An Interview with Michelle Aldridge

An Interview with Henry Churney and John Wilson

An Interview with The Bareback Kings

An Interview with Oleg Denisov

An Interview with Sarah Lee

An Interview with Gary G Knightley

An Interview with Bróccán Tyzack-Carlin

An Interview with Ryan Dalton

An Interview with Konstantin Kisin

An Interview with Joe Bor

Mumble Rumbles (i): That Adam Riches Eruption

An Interview with Nigel Osner

An Interview with Samantha Pressdee

An Interview with Naomi Karavani

An Interview with Travis Jay

An Interview with Sonia Aste

An Interview with Stephen Catling

An Interview with Mandy Muden

An Interview with Nathan Cassidy

Meet The Team

An Interview with Dom Mackie

The Carnal Magic of Scott Agnew’s “Work in Progress”

Commissioned

An Interview with Sonia Aste

An Evening with Rick Molland

An Interview with Nathan Cassidy

An Interview with Katy Schutte

An Interview with Andrew White

Glasgow’s Glee

An Interview with Joz Norris

An Interview with Ro Campbell

The Saturday Night Live Museum: Chicago

An Interview with Jocelyn Chia

An Interview with Shayne Hunter

An Interview with Imran Yusuf

Lewis Doherty: From Wolf to Boar

An Interview with Sam See

An Interview with Aidan Killian

Holidays !!!

Russell Brand’s Re:Birth and his Critique of the British Comic Figurehead

Preview: Dave Gorman

An Interview with Amy Shoshtak

An Interview with Rob Gee

Sam Nicoresti: The Bedtime Funtime Go To Bed Right Now Show

Rob Oldham: The Worm’s Lament

UCL Graters: Panopticon

The Crooners

Ian Smith: Craft

Anna Nicholson: Woman of the Year

Linda

Jacob Hawley: Howl

Sid Singh: American Bot

Goodbye… I’m Leaving

Two Faced Bitchin’

Eat Sleep Shit Shag

Pernilla Holland: Pop Ditz

Daniel Muggleton: Mouth Breather

An Interview with Rob Gee

The Establishment: Fool Britannia

Bryony Twydle: Flamingo

Hot Mess

Steve Bennett: A Jaded Opinion?

Roman Fraden: Back In The Closet

Charlie Partridge: I Can Make You Feel Good. By Comparison.

Sisters: On Demand

Barry Loves You

Will Mars: Candid Cafe

Yianni Agisilaou: I, Human

Comedians Against Humanity

David McIver Is a Nice Little Man

Entertaining the Children

Follow Mumble Comedy on WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Post to

Cancel

%d bloggers like this:

Scroll to Top