Laughing Horse @ City Cafe – Las Vegas
Aug 21-25 (22:30)

Material:   Delivery:  
Laughs: Room: 

Bad Boys is the most misleading title at the Fringe. For a start, they consist of a young man & young woman – Jamie D’Souza and Chelsea Birkby. Secondly, both their comedy & general demeanors are, in fact, rather good. There is a loose vote at the end to decided which of the two, plus a random punter, are the baddest boy in the room, but its rather meaningless really as a concept. Still, everyone at the Fringe needs a theme, right? So to the comedy itself. Two things contribute to coaxing the laugh-receptors of the brain into chortles, which help Bad Boys take off. The first is the time, 22.30, perfect for those about to go out on the lash, or are winding their lash up, with each demographic glaikit & glowing with life. The second is the disco-lights, his random radiancies combine with the lovely warmth both comedians project, inducing the feeling of being at an early 90s rave on some very happy drugs.

Chelsea introduces things – she’s a natural MC – with Jamie’s swirling carousel of comedy following soon after. His material was nice & mixed, as was his race (as is mine) & I loved his phrase, on bemoaning his girlfriend giving him extremely short notice he was about to meet her parents – ‘once you go brown, you let your dad down.’ Classic. After 21 days reviewing in a row, my mental turbines had reached a curious state, being in a higher state of exhaustion. My brain was still alert however, like a sniper under a blanket, & I began to listen to the laughter which Jamie created. It felt like being at a Grand Prix, with the rise & fall sounding very much like a nneeee-ooooowwww between each rapid-paced, crowd-pleasing gag. Continuing the car motif, about half-way through his set he gave out a flurry of jokes which felt like we were going through the gears, with each eruption of laughter increasing in energy & volume.

Chelsea was next, her cloudlike tresses tumbling through the mists, & despite not being as natural a wit as Jamie, nor as polished, she is just a cute-puppy’s worth of cleverness & class. ‘Nobody likes Mumford & Sons if they don’t like sex,’ she declares, with the coital connexion forming a large part of her set. Her bipolarism pops up, the hypermania of which she compares to the imbibing of buckfast. She is more interactive than Jamie, while her youth is important – Chelsea is still quite excited about the world & as a 43-year old seeing it through her eyes again, she is quite revitalizing. Together, she & Jamie form a happening team, who I guarantee anybody at the Fringe will enjoy.

Damian Beeson Bullen