Review: Gavin Webster, Live Theatre, Newcastle

May 29 2010 by Sam Wonfor, The Journal

I LIKE seeing Geordie comedians on their own turf.

You know that the local references which crop up will have been genuinely observed and not dropped in courtesy of Google or Wikipedia.

You know that there will be a pre-ordered affinity between the crowd and the performer.

And you pretty much know that you can expect a show which no other crowd in the country will get.

All this is true of Blaydon-born and Wallsend-dwelling comic Gavin Webster who is currently two-thirds of his way through a three-night residency at Live Theatre in Newcastle.

In fact, I don’t think there was anything about his show which hadn’t been left to steep in a North East marinade. And lots of it – including the musical interludes – was very funny.

However, it has to be said that the two-hour show offered many moments which, from my point of view, had also been deeply seasoned with a heavy helping of deja vu.

Not that the comedian was frightened of admitting the recycling of material throughout the show.

And to be fair, it seemed that a large slice of the almost-sell-out crowd were hearing – and enjoying – it for the first time.

But having laughed lots during his 2009 three-night stay at Live, I was hoping for more new stuff from the established and rightly- well-thought-of stand-up.

Webster is clearly capable of brilliance – the swearing prefix routine was inspired – and there’s no doubt that his apparent disorganisation is part of his onstage charm.

But I left wishing that we’d heard more of what he’s working on at the moment, rather than the stuff which got belly laughs the last time around.