Review: Jesterlarf Comedy Club

JACK ROBERTS: ‘Any evening that will make a joke about patriotically opting for a Shepherds’ Bush over a Brazilian has already got off to a good start for me.’

Dave Johns Gav Jesterlarf Russell Howard Shepherd's Bush Stuart Black The Junction Tom Price

8.30pm, 7th May at the Junction. £12.

Perhaps I realised exactly what kind of humour the night would be when a large bald man called “Gav” farted openly in the queue. Surely that sets the tone for an evening of unsophisticated, low-brow toilet humour? This is true.  But, it is also true that it was of a bloody brilliant kind.  Any evening that will make a joke about patriotically opting for a Shepherds’ Bush over a Brazilian has already got off to a good start for me. 

The basic set-up of the evening is three comedians doing a small set each with a compere linking it all together. If you get easily embarrassed and are quite a sensitive person then don’t sit near the front because they will take the piss viciously. If comedians are prepared to take on the Apache helicopter pilots at the front table then a fresh-faced student nervously sweating in his gilet or barbour or whatever you kids wear will not last long. Needless to say I sat at the back. 

The compere Tom Price took a little while to get in the zone at the start but soon warmed to the task. As is normal for this kind of thing the first comedian (apart from the cracking Shepherds’ Bush line) wasn’t fantastic but served up some passable bollock jokes. The second bloke Stuart Black was very funny thanks mainly to his adorable Somerset accent. He reminded me of a less smug Russell Howard. We’ve all heard comedians doing jokes about going to the gym but he managed to make these standard routines seem a little bit fresher.

If the “Cheeky Geordie”, Dave Johns, had had his own show it would get 5 stars from me. While he does stick to the basics of comedy he gets some cracking laughs out of it. "No wonder Anne Frank got caught, there’s a bloody great sign outside her house" is a taster.  Not only is he very funny, but he’s also quite cute in a strange way and a bit confused by the modern world. (“When I was a kid I didn’t carry a knife. All I needed was a stick and some dog shit.”) Go see him if you have the opportunity.

The Jesterlarf Comedy Club is on the first Friday of every month and if you’re the student who wishes he could chat people up purely on the quality of his farts or reads real tabloids (in a “caff” instead of café), in a vain attempt to seem like a normal person, then this is gold for you.