BBC Comedy On The Fringe 2011

With Isy Suttie

More Charlie Baker videos

Charlie Baker at Latitude 2010
Live Review

Charlie Baker struggled to interest the sparsely populated comedy tent with tired, pedestrian material, but his disproportionate response to the heckler who dared point this out left a worst taste in mouth than the dodgiest festival falafel.

His dull shtick on being a fat bloke, odd stereotypes about him being ‘gay enough’ to eat quiche but man enough to have onion rings with it, and his repeated assertion – without any gags to back it up – that nothing in life is better than taking a shit with the Argos catalogue as reading material was largely met by listless silence.

Then one bloke piped up, out of frustration rather than hate: ‘What you should do in shut up’, and Baker turned. Getting nowhere with his bullying tone urging the dissenter to ‘stand up and say that’, Baker wandered into the crowd and dumped the best part of a pint of cider over the naysayer.

Latitude is so polite such unprofessional behaviour went unchallenged, but it was surely an utterly inappropriate response. Baker should have defeated him with wit, not assault.

It was, at best, a misguided attempt to inject some excitement into the moribund atmosphere – but then Baker also created that in the first place.

In his favour, he does have a very strong singing voice, able to emulate greats like Sinatra, though he only does so to change song lyrics to make them slightly ruder. And singing the jingle of the Bodyform ads has been used as a punchline replacement service since the campaign first appeared in a previous century.

Poor material and an unpleasant streak… not a winning combination.

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We saw Charlie at Manchester Comedy on 4th November. He's good even though the rather inebriated audience were very badly behaved.

David Shaw, November 2011

Not heard of him before but just seen him on ITV4s Beer & Pizza Club. His comedy was tired and unintelligent. The other guests seemed a bit embarrassed. He couldn't shut up either, talking over everyone. Overall, a bad impression was made.

Phil Edgar, September 2010

Saw Charlie at Latitude and this weekend at Big Chill. The Latitude tent was an impossible task which he had a good go at, getting 3 or 4 rounds of applause and the crowd definitely on his side in the row with the idiot in the audience.At the Big Chill he was on with Rob Deering in his music quiz which was excellent fun.He was very funny but should just sing more!

James Buck, August 2010

Saw him at edingburgh highlights last weekend. He was awful he just sang and shouted at everyone, no jokes whatsoever, rubbish

Jim Shaw, May 2010

Very funny, very engaging and probably one of the best MCs I have seen. His routine about Newton Abbot cattle auction is silly and yet incredibly funny

Alex Thorner, March 2010

Charlie Baker is fabulous, his act is so funny. Great all round entertainer. Everyone should go see him!

Rachel, January 2010

Saw Charlie at The Stables in Milton Keynes this week. He spent the first half of his set trying to 'work' the audience. And failed miserably. He then went on to his set material(which actually wasn't bad) but he had lost the two back rows by that stage, and they just sat there chatting, which annoyed everyone, including him.

Jo Phelan, November 2009

Can't believe the dreadful review Charlie got at this year's Fringe! We saw him and thought he was absolutely brilliant. He's a naturally funny guy and had the audience we were with in bits. Must have seen 10 comics at this year's Fringe and he and Terry Alderton were the best.

Ade, October 2009

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