Hosting the entire event was the brilliant Cave Lunch (who we most recently saw at Cowboys Comedy which you can read about at https://rhysreviews.com/2024/05/14/tiger-face-production-review/) and the amazing Charlie Webster. These two performers have a fantastic chemistry both on and off stage as they were able to flawlessly volley off each other throughout the night which had the audience laughing constantly. The banter between these two (and specifically the front row of the audience) helped to establish the sense of mischief that we would see throughout the rest of the night. Not only did the hosts get the audience warmed out with a series of playful jokes to start the show, helped to get the audience excited for every single performer but also helped to introduce and explain the unique challenges the performers would face during their routines. What is unique about The Gong Wrong Show is the fact that every performer was faced with a randomly selected challenge that tested their ability to improvise and deal with unexpected challenges. While the ability to adapt to deal with unruly audience members makes total sense, I do think that some of the challenges need to be more refined to create realistic hurdles for the performers to overcome. In my opinion, something like having the audience/judges choose certain words or phrases the performers have to use in their routine and then implementing a points-based system which ranks how successfully the words are integrated could have refined the unique twist. The show began with the hosts selecting three judges from the audience who had to assess how well the performers did in overcoming what challenges they had to face. They were encouraged to raise their cards to single if they wanted a performer to leave the stage (which only happened once but more on that later) which could have easily created some awkward moments where one or two judges wanted the routine to end but one wants it to continue.
The first performer to take to the stage was the amazing Mike Hall who had to deal with a bombardment of question-based heckles from the audience. The routine began with Mike delivering a series of hilarious, pre-prepared jokes which the audience thoroughly enjoyed however once the heckles started it quickly put a stop to the carefully planned routine. I know that if it was me on the stage I would have crumbled at the first heckle especially when the heckles turned to a more intimate and private nature. While Mike was able to flawlessly react to the outlandish heckles from the audience, I do think that how they were delivered could have been more structured to allow the comedian to showcase the true extent of their talent. I personally think that having a timer that goes off every ten seconds or something to signal the right time for one person to shout out a random question could have given a greater opportunity for Mike to squeeze in more of his brilliant jokes while still allowing for some degree of chaos with the confession session themed challenge.
The next performer was the fantastic May Thompson who spent the majority of their time talking about the Channel Four TV series Haunted. For those who are not familiar with this show, it is a series about regular people who try to hide from a team of expert hunters and May used this as an opportunity to discuss why she thinks she would be a great asset to the show. While delivering her material she had to deal with the surprise haircut challenge where Charlie would randomly appear on the stage and gesture using an electric razor on the performer. I have to be honest this was my least favourite challenge of the night as it did not emulate a real-life situation the aspiring comedians would face in their everyday life. It was clear that even May did not understand this challenge as they commented during her set that this was a very unusual addition to her performance! The highlight of this routine however was May’s fantastic ability to interact wonderfully with the audience throughout her routine as she also dealt with a random razor appearing.
The third performer to take to the stage was the amazing Al Gordon who had to combat a series of questions about hard-hitting issues currently facing the world. What I think made this challenge more effective than the confession session one earlier in the evening was the fact that the questions entirely came from Charlie (one of the co-hosts) so he was able to slightly align the questions with the content of Al’s pre-prepared jokes. Every time a question was shouted Al would take on a sort of politically fueled character which helped to embed the questions and answers into his performance sequence. At one point in the routine Al was asked about his options on racism (which is a wild question) where he jokingly talked about how we there are countries with extreme racism and countries with very little so we should find a happen medium of racism as the human race. At one point in the routine Al discussed the iconicness of Harvey Price and that moment on Loose Women which will go down in history as one of the most memorable TV appearances ever!
The final performer of Act One was none other than Luke Burns McGruther who showcased their uniquely high-energy performance style with a much more mature vibe to their routine. The majority of their routine was spent talking about dogging which the audience found absolutely hysterical! The added layer to this performance was the fact that the audience was encouraged to constantly heckle the performer which I know that if it had been me I would have totally fallen apart by Luke was able to deal with it perfectly! I think that this challenge was too similar to previous ones we had seen at this event so the audience knew what to expect but Luke was able to hilariously and quickly heckle back at key audience members which again showed how quick and clever this performer truly is!
Opening the second act of the Gong Wrong Show was the energetic Ollie Edwards who had a certain air of the eccentric James Acaster about him. He began the routine acknowledging how young he appears to be and working this into stories about drinking which the audience could easily follow along with. The added challenge then started when Charlie walked onto the stage pretending to be a lost tourist (of indeterminable origin) looking for specific key landmarks in Wales. Each time Ollie was able to offer directions but in my opinion, this challenge did take away from Ollie’s set. Every few seconds I found myself wondering when Charlie would be back on stage and what European accent he would attempt rather than the series of jokes Ollie had carefully prepared. I think that the focus of each slot should be the performing with the challenge being an add-on rather than the audience focussing on the challenge and seeing how the performer deals with it.
Next up was the brilliant Maria Pollard who had to overcome the very distracting “doctor, doctor” routine where various audience members were spontaneously dealing with an array of medical emergencies that Maria had to deal with. I personally think that this channel has a very dangerous potential to offend or upset people in the audience as what is essentially happening is people are pretending to have serious, life-altering issues. On top of this, there would also be no situation in the real world where a comedian would have to suddenly stop their routine to take on the role of a pseudo-doctor and so I think this was not a realistic situation a performer would need to overcome. However, Maria was able to navigate the unusual challenge with one highlight being when Charlie suggested someone was having a mental health crisis to which Maria hillarious responded “Have you tried having a cup of tea and going for a walk?” which is the classic advice given by mental health charities and has become somewhat of a running joke on social media.
The final performer to take to the stage was Billo Jones who did not get far into his routine before stumbling over his words and essentially begging the guest judges to vote him off. From a production perspective, I thought that it was a good thing that Billo acknowledged the judges selected earlier in the evening as until this point they had not really been involved much in the show! His routine had to battle with Charlie and Cave as they took on the role of some unruly dogs which again took the focus away from the performer and had the audience thinking about what the hosts would do next.
It was then announced by a public vote that we would be seeing Luke and Maria take to the stage again to face two more unusual challenges to determine who would walk away with the cash prize! One of my favourite challenges of the entire evening came at the closing moments of the show where one of the finalists Luke took to the stage with a ‘technical difficulty’ inspired challenge. What I loved about this routine is the fact that it reflected what comedians (and other performers) may experience at a gig with lights malfunctioning, the microphones switching on and off, random music playing etc. This was a realistic challenge that the performers will most probably experience at some point in their careers (although probably not to this degree) but Luke was able to continue powering through his routine despite everything going wrong around him. Completing the final head-to-head was Maria who very cleverly incorporated the football chant-related challenge into her routine. This challenge went down particularly well with the aforementioned lads in the front row but was structured in a way that allowed the comedian to showcase their skills. For only the second time this evening, the hosts made sure to fit the chants to whatever content of the comedian’s jokes which meant that Maria could physically get involved with the signs without it distracting from her set. Not only did joining in make sense but it also showcased how clever and quick Maria is as she was able to then switch back into her routine as soon as the chants as finished. At the end of the night, it was announced that Maria was the overall winner of the event which means she walked away with the cash prize!
Overall, the Gong Wrong show is a comedy event unlike any I have ever seen before with eight incredible performers taking to stage to overcome a series of outlandish challenges. The talent on display at Boho Bar was immense with a plethora of hilarious jokes being shared throughout the evening. I do think that going forward the organisers need to carefully consider the type of challenges used to allow the comedians to be the focal point and catering the challenges to be responsive to the sets shared to encourage a more cohesive and easier to follow sequences by the performers. I would rate this event 4 out of 5 stars!
Rhysreviews 