COMEDY REVIEW: Mocking A Murderer - The Frog And Bucket, Manchester.

With a title like ‘Mocking A Murderer’, little was left to the imagination. There would be talks of murder and conversations about murderers. That was right up my street!!!

Since I was a teen I’d loved anything and everything surrounding the topics of crime and serial killers, I was even at one point considering a career in criminology or forensic science for this exact reason, however decided against this. So, when a talk surrounding murders came onto my agenda I thought what a wonderful was to spend my Saturday night!

The Frog And Bucket played host to Nigel Lovell and his show ‘Mocking A Murderer’. This Greater Manchester Fringe show focused on the topics of murder, Nazis and comedy, three words that I never thought I’d put together in one sentence. Lovell played to an intimate audience; a group of friends, two relatively young couples, a large group of male friends on a lad birthday night out and me. Although the crowd was fairly engaged I felt, with a larger audience, Lovell would have reaped the benefits! For myself personally I have a dry and dark sense of humour, I want to be laughing at jokes I shouldn’t be laughing at, especially if the show involves murderers. Setting my personal taste aside the audience did seem to love Lovell’s jokes, however I found that some missed the mark. (I think the audience size was contributory to this)

Lovell had superb knowledge surrounding murders, murderers and the topic of murder. I personally loved listening to all the crazy facts he knew about serial killers from all over the world, I also loved the game show “Nazi, Murderer or Comedian” that was included in his set, the audience participation worked beautifully as we all got involved with guessing which faces suited them titles most, a game show that is clearly not for the faint-hearted. Personally, I think that if the show was hosted as more of a sit-down talk and there was more talk surrounding the topics he mentioned, I would have enjoyed it more. I felt the balance of comedy and chat was quite off which was a shame.

I believe with a larger audience, a smoother tone and a longer set this would have ticked all my boxes. On the other hand, I am only one woman who has seen this show, the group of men who sat at the side of me seemed to love it! And the couple at the back were most definitely questioning how they’d get away with the perfect murder which I think Lovell would have loved.

Reviewer - Caroline Bleakley
on - 6/7/19