Marissa's Manchester Comedy Festival Diary - The Comedy Store - 17th Oct
So to kick off the Comedy Festival to the festival HQ, The Comedy Store who happen to be putting on two shows I wanted to see but sadly missed at the Edinburgh Fringe this year - the acclaimed Jason Cook's fifth show The Search for Happiness and the show he directed for his friend and fellow North Easterner Chris Ramsey, Offermation, which was nominated for the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy award.
Cook's latest show looks at what makes us happy. Cook's shows have become well known for being from the heart, concerned with whatever it is that's dominating his life and emotions. The first solo show My Confessions told of his father's stroke, the second - Joy - his father's death, Fear dipped back into his past exploring his many phobias and neurosis and The End (Part 1) told of a close shave with death (that may have just been a panic attack) and his impending fatherhood. Somehow Cook manages to not be sentimentally saccharine whilst still tugging at the heartstrings. Probably because his heartfelt shows are punctuated by his mischievous wit. In The Search For Happiness, now a husband and dad of one, Cook ponders what constitutes happiness and conjures images such as that of his middle aged, widowed mum dressed as a Disney Fairy Godmother told with mock indignation preventing a lovely image becoming too twee.
Cook's hallmark can be seen in Ramsey's show too, Cook having encouraged him to go all out with the emotion on his show too. It's a feel-good affair celebrating 'offermation,' that information that you didn't ask for but people supply you with all the same. It's what makes us human and keeps the wheels of conversation turning. Ramsey's idea stems from round-robin letters he and his family were receiving from his mother's cousin who she hadn't seen in fifty years and Ramsey himself had never met. The three letters are full of irrelevant info about the minutiae of their lives but over time Ramsey finds himself warming to the couple.
It's a top start to the festival and an indication of the great shows to come. Watch this space.
Visit marissaburgess.wordpress.com website here
Cook's latest show looks at what makes us happy. Cook's shows have become well known for being from the heart, concerned with whatever it is that's dominating his life and emotions. The first solo show My Confessions told of his father's stroke, the second - Joy - his father's death, Fear dipped back into his past exploring his many phobias and neurosis and The End (Part 1) told of a close shave with death (that may have just been a panic attack) and his impending fatherhood. Somehow Cook manages to not be sentimentally saccharine whilst still tugging at the heartstrings. Probably because his heartfelt shows are punctuated by his mischievous wit. In The Search For Happiness, now a husband and dad of one, Cook ponders what constitutes happiness and conjures images such as that of his middle aged, widowed mum dressed as a Disney Fairy Godmother told with mock indignation preventing a lovely image becoming too twee.
Cook's hallmark can be seen in Ramsey's show too, Cook having encouraged him to go all out with the emotion on his show too. It's a feel-good affair celebrating 'offermation,' that information that you didn't ask for but people supply you with all the same. It's what makes us human and keeps the wheels of conversation turning. Ramsey's idea stems from round-robin letters he and his family were receiving from his mother's cousin who she hadn't seen in fifty years and Ramsey himself had never met. The three letters are full of irrelevant info about the minutiae of their lives but over time Ramsey finds himself warming to the couple.
It's a top start to the festival and an indication of the great shows to come. Watch this space.
Visit marissaburgess.wordpress.com website here
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