The 99 Club at Storm

Outstanding comedians are few and far between these days. Bar upon bar is graced with a different set of men and women standing on small stages, night after night, blithely or bitterly reflecting on their lives and the world around them. Unlike the majority of other facets of the entertainment industry – music, theatre, film – stand-up comedy doesn’t require a sold out venue or a guest list the length of an arm to guarantee a good time.

The 99 Club is no exception to the rule as Tom Price bounds up on stage and launches into a grand scheme of humiliating the front row of the audience as the host of the evening. Price, a self-proclaimed advocate for all things ginger, discusses the woes of becoming an adult, before mustering an impressive applause as he introduces the first act, Spencer Brown.

Brown, the cheery and bright-eyed lad from London, swaggers onto the brightly lit stage with a spring in his step as he delves straight into another quiz of the audience. After an obliteration of every conceivable country that could possibly be stereotyped, Brown plucks a guitar from off stage and starts what seems to be a rather touching love song – and ends up being a satirical mocking of the controversial Islamic Burka, aptly named “Burka Girl”, and brings the house down.

Price returns briefly to the stage after a short interval with new fervour, announcing the next act, Mark Maier. Maier throws the entire room off course with a whole opening gambit as a clichéd American, and is awarded with thunderous applause when he reveals he is little more than a cynical Brit. Through a myriad of provocative hand gestures and profanity, Maier argues over the troubles of driving, as well as the merits and afflictions of being British, creating a grand sense of camaraderie with the audience, who holler tirelessly at the self-loathing nation we appear to be to the world.

Alistair Barrie ties the night up perfectly, clad in a Christmassy velvet green blazer. He explores, similarly to Maier, the struggles of being British in the world. The audience, who are predominantly comprised of twenty and thirty somethings on a Thursday night drink up, cheer tirelessly with pride as Barrie annihilates the long-standing victim of bullying from our country – France – and proclaims us to be the most miserable nation in the world.

Hannah Ross 

The 99 Club is on nightly at Storm Nightclub Leicester Square. For further information or to book visit the venue’s website here.