Review // Baths Laughs Comedy Club

Last night we attended brand new comedy club “Baths Laughs” for the launch.

Baths Laughs have partnered with “Off The Kerb Productions” to bring exciting and talented comedians over the coming months.

The event was held in the downstairs lounge at The Baths Hall, which makes the evening a little more intimate and definitely more risky when you want to avoid being centre of attention for the comics on stage.

We arrived early doors. The venue opened at 7pm and the performances started at 8pm. We took a seat on the comfy sofa and watched as the room began to fill. By 7:45pm the room was surprisingly full with people observing from the back to find vacant seats that didn’t seem too risky. It’s always very brave to sit front row, as some unlucky people found out.

The atmosphere was relaxing, chilled and welcoming. Windows blacked out, spotlights on and a lonely mic in the middle of the stage with a patient audience that was ready to be entertained.

Mick Ferry kicked the night off, introducing the first round of audience participation and setting up jokes for later on. The audience started off pretty frosty, very quiet in their responses and it took some hard work from Mick to get them loosened up, but his years of experience on the comedy stage saw him through. He was a brilliant compere, very engaging and held the audiences attention. He soon had them laughing with jokes centered around banging pans in lockdown, neighbourhood rivalry, questioning members of the audience and covering relatable topics. Mick is very talented comedian and a professional compere, that’s probably why he’s an award winner on the circuit. He has a very likeable & bubbly personality that was well received.

The first act to be introduced for the evening was Molly McGuinness, it’s always going to be tough for the first half of the evening, when attending a comedy night with comedians unknown to the audience, people expect a lot, or don’t know what to expect at all and they’ve usually only had a few sips of their wine. I prefer to go in with no expectations and then be pleasantly surprised by the evening I’ve had, that works for me.

Molly was great, I thought she delivered well and she had some really funny content. She was a pretty cool character with her Mancunian accent, beer in hand and bags of swagger as she approached the stage in her band tee, giving off grunge vibes. Molly’s comedy style was brilliantly dry and it’s definitely rude! She was committed to her material and kept the delivery strong throughout, covering being single over Christmas and in lockdown and how there are too many places it’s acceptable to take your dog these days, referring to cafes and even a cinema in Manchester where you can take your dog to watch Lassie for a tenner followed by the punchline. One of the highlights of her set involved her acting and drawing to finish off a particularly funny story. Molly has definitely got some of those jokes in her set where you don’t know whether to laugh or cringe, talking about weird sexual topics. I think we can expect to see more of Molly on the main comedy circuit very soon.

We had a little interval and in no time, Mick was back on, getting us ready for the final comedian of the night, scouser, Simon Wozniak. The audience seemed to have livened up a bit by then giving a louder welcome to the stage.

Simon was unapologetically brilliant with his honest and line crossing content. He is a very confident performer and he wasn’t afraid to say things that he knew would shock and offend, which is one of those things I like in comedy, when you see people look around the room, unsure whether it’s acceptable to laugh or not. He covered a broad range of topics from how patronizing it was to call supermarket workers heroes in lockdown, to controversial political and current topics, there were plenty of gasps around the room followed by laughs. Simon’s delivery was consistent and at times….I want to say angry or aggressive but not in a bad way, in a way he showed passion in what he was putting across and the audience lapped up his hard hitting and charismatic comedy styling.

All in all it was a fantastic night, great turn out and we saw some really talented comedians. The ticket price is very reasonable for the quality of acts and the evening as a whole and If you’re one of those people that only buys tickets to go see big name comedians touring, because you know what you’re getting for your money, think again, reconsider and give a comedy club a go. I’ve seen some big names in small clubs, discovering rising talent is much more exciting!

If you missed out, the next Baths Laughs is October 20th, but be quick if you want tickets because it was a popular night and it’s only going to grow!

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