Nathan Cassidy is a stand-up comedian who entertained this evening at Salford Arts Theatre with his latest show, Bumblebee, as part of this year's Greater Manchester Fringe Festival.
Cassidy obviously enjoys performing and joking with and to his audience. He formulated, after a slightly eggy start, a good rapport with tonight's audience, and indeed his set was, on the whole, both enjoyable and funny. This evening he used a microphone (many comedians do, it's their only prop, and need to do something with their hands!), but he really didn't need one. The size of the room was small enough for him to have been unamplified. Also, his mic was turned up too high, and there was feedback as it was too loud in any case.
Cassidy's humour is of the story-telling variety, and his story this evening centred around his coming home during lockdown from his allowed hour's exercise to find a burglar at the top of his stairs. What happens next and how the story ends would be telling, so I'll leave it there. (but a bumblebee does feature...!). His routine was excellently thought through and I truly enjoyed his callbacks. [the term used when a comedian references earlier material for greater humour and impact]. He also was able to deal quite expertly with some very good heckles / audience comments.
Where cassidy loses marks in my opinion, is in his overuse of and reliance on expletives. The set would have been very funny, and indeed far more acceptable, without the pointless repetition of a string of C-words, T-words (again four letters), and others similar. The central section was much more successful due to his lack of swearing. Please don't misunderstand me, I am absoluely no prude; but I do believe that one well placed expletive is worth 100 of them when they are there simply for the sake of it. If Cassidy had used only one C-word prior to his constable joke (think about it....!), it would have been hilarious. As it was he raised little more than a passing titter for it. - we'd heard the word too many times already.
An enigmatic story-teller with a good stage presence.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
Where cassidy loses marks in my opinion, is in his overuse of and reliance on expletives. The set would have been very funny, and indeed far more acceptable, without the pointless repetition of a string of C-words, T-words (again four letters), and others similar. The central section was much more successful due to his lack of swearing. Please don't misunderstand me, I am absoluely no prude; but I do believe that one well placed expletive is worth 100 of them when they are there simply for the sake of it. If Cassidy had used only one C-word prior to his constable joke (think about it....!), it would have been hilarious. As it was he raised little more than a passing titter for it. - we'd heard the word too many times already.
An enigmatic story-teller with a good stage presence.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 25.9.21
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