Live at Brighton Dome Bleeped reviewed by 14-year-old Lilija
At the inaugural Brighton Dome Comedy Festival in October, we launched brand new comedy showcase Live at Brighton Dome Bleeped – an evening of non-stop laughs, with the same high-quality acts as our regular Live at Brighton Dome night but without the swearing. 14-year-old Lilija Markiewicz went along to review the show. Read on to see what she thought…
“Live at Brighton Dome Bleeped was an inclusive and original show, where people of all ages could watch comedy together, keeping it purely PG, with no swearing. This is wonderful as it is a rare thing, that young teens or even tweens can enjoy comedy with their parents and family together. It also had live captioning and with a flexible age range, this comedy show was for everyone to enjoy and well, laugh!
As the lights dimmed in the Corn Exchange, the crowd was full of an excited energy.
Think kids don’t want to heckle? Think again. The show began with the hilarious Ian Smith, who was our host for the evening, opening his set with a tantalising question for the audience, what was his age? This question was met with both laughs and hands up from mostly, younger people in the audience! He got the crowd and mood buzzing, to put it lightly!
Ian handed the mic over to Chantel Nash, a brilliantly relatable and inventive comedian, she talked us through many funny stories from parenthood, receiving many laughs and nodding heads from the parents in the audience! It was great to see her amazing audience involvement in the set. She asked some of the youngsters some of their opinions on multiple topics, and the kids were more than happy to share and tell their own stories, sometimes to the audience’s surprise - or horror!
Next up, we were in the hands of viral stand-up star Finlay Christie. He told us about his travels to China and his realisation that there was only one website available there - Yahoo. This hilarious segment combined with his (ahem) younger age, produced a very bouncy and funny set.
The audience was buzzing during the interval and as I mingled and “excuse me!” and “sorry”’d my way through the delighted crowd, I overheard snatches of people’s conversations on the show, and their glowing reviews. Adults were laughing to each other and kids jumping up and down (literally!). It was just an amazing feeling the comedians had set up for the audience!
Ian Smith then came back on stage as if to haunt us with his presence once more. Joking! He was amazing at warming up the crowd for the fourth and final comedian, Daniel Foxx.
Daniel opened his set with a few entertaining jokes then produced an LBN (Little Black Notebook) from his trouser pocket, introducing us to his nostalgic and comedic Stories for Privileged Children. They were laugh-until-you-can’t-feel-your-face stories, and they really were maybe the most unforgettable tales of the evening.
After a short goodbye from Ian and bows from the four comedians we left our seats, sad to say our goodbyes, with our spirits high and a bucket full of funny anecdotes to tell everyone we saw later that evening.
It was comforting to not be the youngest person in the audience - to my pleasant surprise! It was genuinely one of my favourite things about the show, and how the Bleeped element didn’t make it any less funny. These four talented comedians were able to transform their material and individual style making it a wholly engaging and delightful show, one of the most entertaining I have seen at Brighton Dome at my ripe old age of fourteen.”
