Returning Bridges has Clickimin laughing again

More than 1,000 people turned up at the Clickimin on Wednesday night to watch the talented Scottish comedian, Kevin Bridges perform the first of two shows in Lerwick on his new tour, A Whole Different Story.

Bridges, who has performed on Live at the Apollo, was quick to point out that he was glad to be back in Shetland once again, in his “favourite gym hall of all time”. He mocked the Clickimin’s main hall further, comparing his show to “Wednesday night in PE”.

The comedian engaged with the local audience impressively, moving from teasing audience members to using his jokes to mock the recent local news. He joked of the recent swimming pool closure, suggesting that they should just “go screw the bolt back in and open the pool”.

When a member of the audience suggested complex manager Robert Geddes had been on the roof, Bridges swiftly asked: “So, did Robert Geddes loosen the bolt up there? We’re about to get Robert the sack”.

Even with Bridges having no idea who Geddes is, the audience enjoyed the hit at the Clickimin boss nonetheless. Surely the SRT will not follow Bridges’ advice to give him the boot.

Despite making the standard “do you have internet up here?” and “do you even get a summer in Shetland?” jokes that we are used to hearing in the isles, Bridges had plenty of new material that had the audience laughing all night.

There was a lengthy routine about the sleepovers you have when you were a child, but kept getting sidetracked and off-topic, mostly due to the audience members shouting comments to him. However, the joke was hilarious once he managed to move around the crowd’s interruptions.

You could tell that Bridges was a natural comedian, moving smoothly from an improvised joke about politics, to gay sex and back to politics again quickly, while keeping the audience laughing the entire time.

Bridges effortlessly moved past a flicker in the lighting half way through his performance, joking that there was maybe a loose bulb, and asked “are we about to close another leisure facility?” much to the delight of the crowd.

The comedy show was greatly enhanced by Bridge’s support act, Dougie Dunlop. Dunlop’s performance lasted half an hour, but felt like it was only 10 minutes as the crowd lapped up his mix of dry and blunt humour.

Many of Dunlop’s joke referenced getting old, joking that when he buys gifts for his elderly parents now, he buys them with the thought that he may inherit them in mind. He went on to mock his own age, being 42, by joking that when he sees women on nights out now in short skirts, he thinks “I wouldn’t mind putting a duffel coat on that”.

Dunlop gave a special mention to the Harbour Chip Shop for his dinner that evening, encouraging the audience to give the chippy a round of applause. The crowd certainly enjoyed Dunlop’s set and laughed at his entertaining performance just as much as they did Bridges.

The show went down very well with no awkward pauses or missed jokes.

Perhaps there was more swearing than necessary in the show but personally, the profanity added to the very engaging performance.

Sarah Young