Last Sunday 29^th June Pave shut the blinds to the rest of Hull and allowed in the select few with tickets to the show.

I got there at around 7.15 and by 25 past the queue had almost made its way to Lounge, luckily I’d gotten their early and was first in line.

Doors opened at 7.30pm and once the crowd had made their way into the building and found what they thought to be ‘the best seats in the house’, the doors were locked and the blinds were shut, it probably looked like a secret cult meeting to passers by who had no chance at a freebie peek and were shunned away at the door. It was like being at a lock in but without the free booze and you still had to go out the back for a fag.

It was the first of 2 ‘Edinburgh festival previews’, the next being on the 13^th July and tonight Justin Moorhouse and Gavin Webster were giving their gags a road test.

 

Justin Moorhouse, star of Phoenix Nights, 8 out of 10 Cats, Max & Paddy and The Charlotte Church Show came on at about 8.15 and introduced himself. 
Don’t you just hate it when Comedians say, ‘I’ve always loved [insert whichever town/city the gigs in here]’ Well Justin didn’t quite come out with that predictable one, more of a, ‘I’ve always liked Hull because you can tell the audience that ‘it’s Shit here innit’ and they’ll agree nodding’ – Which is true! We all know its shit but that’s why we like it. Anyway on that note he was on our wave length, always a step in the right direction. He was a Northerner like us and we could relate to him. I don’t know what it is about comedians but if I had a Southerner and Northerner in front of me cracking the same joke, I’ll always find the bloke from up North funnier, I think it’s just the way we are. We can take the piss out of ourselves more. Anyhoo, less of the rant, I feel like I’m telling the bloody show.

 

Justin’s set had been based around the massive social network site Facebook and the thousands of so called ‘friends’ you tot up on there. For a social networking site it’s ironically stolen the public’s real social life and replaced it with a cyber one, funny don’t you think? A Good choice, I mean everyone can relate to the ins and outs of Facebook, well probably everyone except my Dad who’s not quite yet mastered life beyond Microsoft Word but he and the few others who weren’t quite up to scratch with the Web weren’t excluded from his gags.

 

The show started with a brief slide show. He pointed out that other comedians would probably insert a pornographic photo in there and then come out with the one liner ‘How did that in there’? – A joke that’s been used far too many times from comedians across the globe and has even been used in The Simpsons for God sake. So instead Justin decided that his slides where to be based upon the line ‘How did that get in there?’

For Example;

How did that (Picture of George Bush Flashed up) Get in there? (The White house)

How did That (Picture of Nicola from Girls Aloud) Get in there? (Picture of the Girl Band)

How did that get in there? (A ship in a bottle)

 

And so on.

 

The main show then consisted of Justin whittling his thousands of Facebook friends down to just 5, as his Grandma had always said that you’ll go far if you can count all of your real friends on just one hand. And so the count down began. Deleting people who didn’t actually know him, liked motorbike racing, hadn’t been for coffee with him in the past year and so on and so forth, cracking joke after joke along the way of how and why he’d hacked more and more friends off his list and eventually leaving him with 4 real friends on the screen, with space for another.

This space was used up eventually by an audience member. The whole bar stood up and was whittled down to just one, the same way as Justin had hacked through his Facebook friends, ‘Sit down if you like bungee jumping, sit down if you don’t like Morrisey’ etc until he was left with just one. His fifth and final real Facebook friend.

 

Justin Moorhouse was fantastic, and had Pave in fits throughout the whole performance. If this gig was a 'road test' for most of his gags, he certainly doesn't have anything to worry about and God Knows what he can do when he's actually had more practice! I’d definitely recommend going to see him again and if you’re going to Edinburgh festival this year don’t miss him.

 

The Interval – Lasted around 15 minutes which was just enough time to nip out for a fag with all the other social outcasts and get another bottle of wine in.

 

Gavin Webster was up next and introduced himself as being in this business for 15 years and asking the audience to guess where he was from in the most Geordie of accents I’ve ever heard. No not America.

He ensured us that he doesn’t do impressions, only does jokes and hasn’t had a sex change since he ‘wer ‘a lass’. A warm and welcoming introduction I think. 

The giggles and cackles started from about 40 seconds in, he’d already won over the audience, or maybe it was just due to the fact that they’d all been drinking for the past 2 hours, I don’t know Justin Morrhouse had warmed us up well.

Gavin made use of the projector screen as did Justin. This time it was a little different, with a bit of a ‘Game show’ type of approach as he introduced ‘Websters Pictionary Randomiser’, which was basically a wheel with a load of random words on, which would be spun and stopped just like the Wheel of Fortune.

The wheel was spun and the first word was, ‘Pensioners’ – Gavin would make little reference to the actual word that appeared on screen and go off on one about something else totally off the point which made it all the more amusing.

‘Endangered Animals’ was another and Gavin went on to make the point of ‘if he hasn’t seen/heard of it, it doesn’t matter’. Then he went on about Pandas, 'Pandas for instance, Pandas are becoming extinct but when were they ever over populated? Whose ever said ‘I remember when you couldn’t move for bloody Pandas, there were Pandas as far as the eye can see!’ So it doesn’t matter that they’re becoming extinct'. It was maybe another one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments but I was in hysterics along with the rest of Pave. And apologies if your going to see him and i've given a gag away, you'll still laugh second time round.

 

Another Spin of the Wheel and another word would appear. ‘Bill Gates’ and Gavin would go totally off the point with the remark, ‘D’ya think they’ll ever find Bin Laden?’

 

Along with ‘Websters Pictionary Randomiser’ Gavin went on to rag the piss out of the American forces, and I think we can all just about agree with the comments he had to make! Along with the Falseness of America and it's crazy music industry. ‘What’s with all the cheesy songs like ‘Surfin USA?’ no one ever makes a song about any other sport like Fishing for instance. And it’s true!

 

A true cocky Geordie character who had no need to apologise before his set for any cock-ups that may occur. This was also a practise run for the Edinburgh festival and if that set was anything to go by, he needn’t worry. He was a brilliant comedian with a 'say it like it is' attitude that anyone would find hilarious.

 

The full live show cost £7 and it was £7 well spent, but to anyone thinking of going to the next Comedy night at Pave, I’d advise that you get there early to get a good seat. There is an option to reserve seats practically on the stage but that’s just a little rude in my opinion.

 

I’ll definitely be going again.