There is one thing that I will never understand about people who claim to be fans of stand-up comedy and that is when they pay good money and then walk out half way through the gig because they did not like the material.

I understand that people have different tastes; it would be incredibly boring if everyone liked the same comedians and all comedians were the same and told the same jokes in the same manner.

I went to an Electric Mouse comedy night in Potters Bar with Francesca on Friday. We went to one the month before and when they announced that the foul-mouthed Nina Benjamin would be on this one I very much wanted to go.

Out of the four acts that would be performing I had only heard of two of them; Nina Benjamin and the insane and tramp impressionist Phil Kay. I did not know the other two, Gary Coleman and Manos the Greek, so I checked them out on YouTube and Chortle.

I assumed everyone would do this when going to a stand-up gig or a music gig, apparently not because when Phil Kay came out more than half the people in the room walked out half way through his set.

What did he do?

Did he swear? Yes but not as much as the other comics.

Was he racist? No he wasn’t racist

Was he sexist? I didn’t hear any sexist material, no.

Did he verbally attack members of the audience? Only those who heckled him, but if you heckle then you deserve to be.

Then why would over half the audience walk out? Because he was wacky, different and it frightened them.

I should point out that only one person walked out, but once he did then everyone else got the balls to stand up and walk out. They were mainly posh twats and old people who found his style of comedy too taxing for their simple little brains. They would have rather heard jokes about the local parking restrictions.

I loved his impromptu walk around the room while playing his guitar and singing to pretty much everyone and making it up as he went. He stood behind me and just went “Ssssssssshhhhhhh” and then stood behind Francesca and sang “your drink was finished ages ago.”

Most of his set was rambling and unscripted as he likes to rely on his surroundings to get his jokes from and sometimes this can fall a little flat, as did he when someone came in late and he dived off the stage at them yelling “where the FUCK have you been?!” and landed at their feet in a heap.

The only downside to his performance was at the end. He wiped his face on the stage curtain and noticed how the sweat had made a pattern so he tried doing the same with his belly, his arse and then finally his cock. He then turned around and showed us all his member.

I was howling with laughter through the entire set and Francesca seemed to enjoy it as well, although she did grill me a little for not warning her about him. Maybe this can be my version of the 2 girls 1 cup reaction, I just invite people to see Phil Kay and watch them.

Seriously though, how hard is it to check out the comedians you are going to pay money to see? Would you buy a house or a car without seeing it first?

Photo by Maltsev Alexander from FreeImages