Tim Minchin, Greenwich Comedy Festival - review

Wild child: Tim Minchin played a greatest hits set
5 April 2012

The Edinburgh Fringe may be over but for Londoners the comedy season is just starting.

Later this week Shoreditch launches its Scipmylo laugh-in, which will have to do well to better last night's memorable Greenwich Comedy Festival opening gig. The delayed show was nearly memorable for the wrong reason after some electrical cable crashed down from the marquee roof mid-routine but luckily no major damage was done.

Greenwich's performers were certainly match fit, having just returned from Edinburgh. Dan Antopolski initially seemed overawed by the 1,800-strong audience but eventually warmed up with some nifty wordplay including the explanation that he calls his girlfriend "wifi" partly because she works at home. Gloriously pretentious poet Tim Key read rhymes off the back of playing cards with deadpan panache, while Holly Walsh wowed the crowd with local material - she comes from nearby socially mixed Peckham, where one cannot tell if a white tent indicates a crime scene or a farmers' market.

Wild-haired compere Dan Atkinson knitted the night together with energetic aplomb but it was eccentrically maned headliner Tim Minchin who created fireworks with an invigorating greatest hits set. The last time I saw the Australian at the O2 Arena, Minchin's dark ditties were slightly lost, yet here he was back on subversive song, blending brilliantly hummable tunes with unspeakably twisted lyrics. Omid Djalili headlines tonight and Micky Flanagan stars tomorrow. South-east London is very lucky indeed.

The festival runs until September 11 (08448 472548, greenwichcomedyfestival.co.uk)

Greenwich Comedy Festival
Old Royal Naval College,
King William Walk,, Greenwich, London., SE10 9LW

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