Review: Huzzah! Comedy Night

This tuesday the Tab was invited to the The Huzzah! Comedy Night at the Jericho Tavern. Describing itself as ‘Oblique Dissenting Stand-up for reasonable adults’, this description is incredibly apt, as the evening was full of cerebral humour and fourth wall demolishing, like a Stewart Lee imitation event.

Situated in the home of just-married Jericho, opposite liberal and progressive Somerville College and down the road from so many cocktail bars you don’t know how they survive, this was the perfect situation for some well-meaning middle class friendly comedy with an intellectual twist.

The Jericho Tavern, for when buying from Boden just isn’t middle class enough

Many of the jokes were very Oxford oriented, including Brookes bashing and ‘meta humour’, but this was no surprise when a third of the acts performing were Oxford students. Featuring six comedians and a compare, Anna Dominey, a Worcester 3^rd year, opened the first half with a feminist centred set and then St Hugh’s very own Harry Househam came on during the second part to do a short set focusing on anti jokes and his hatred of certain menial objects.

The rest of the performers were either Oxford based or had travelled from London, and the £2 price tag felt like a steal for the level of variety on show. The quality of the comedy was very mixed, and certainly felt very amateurish, but it was a kind-hearted event where people were there to have fun. If heckling professional comedians to illicit a quick witted, cutting response is your thing, you wouldn’t feel at home here. However if you enjoy intermittent cheap laughs, a cosy environment and reasonably priced beer, get on down.

A girl, on a stage, making funnies

For anyone that is looking to get into Oxford comedy, Anna recommended submitting material to the Revue’s biweekly Audrey and performing in college bars, as ‘the whole pub experience can be a bit daunting at first’. So, budding comedians out there, unless you’re feeling particularly brave or stupid, give it a try in front of friends before you attack the mid 30s middle class hordes of Thom Yorke’s breakthrough pub.

The Huzzah! Comedy Night is a fortnightly event at the Jericho Tavern. Find them on Facebook and Twitter