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Musical comedy act who started in the late Nineties and can perform with guitar, harmonica, drums and piano

Duncan Oakley's Favourite Things at the Manchester Comedy Festival
Live Review
Manchester Tiger Lounge

He’s a rock musician, who talks a lot about sex and uses the most offensive four-letter words with abandon. Yet somehow Duncan Oakley is strangely reminiscent of benign comic legend Terry Scott.

For at the heart of his often dirty set, there’s a cheekiness and childishness that’s about as offensive as Scott singing about ‘pinching little girls up the High Street’ in his ancient comedy-pop ditty My Brother.

Oakley’s material is, in its own way, just as far from the edge. Talking about boozing and shagging is de rigeur for the modern stand-up, and Oakley ticks these boxes. But while his material might not always be strikingly original, it is relentless. He has an ear for the joke, and they come thick and fast – no matter how daft, or occasionally how obvious.

There is, indeed, a frequent dash of silliness to his material, both in the one-liners and in tracks such as The Girl With A Bum For A Face, or the song about his pet fly who forms a band. They sound like titles the more whimsical and more established Boothby Graffoe might come up with, but Oakley’s driven by daft, simple gags rather than Graffoe’s stylised surrealism. You might even call him the unthinking man’s Boothby Graffoe.

But whatever limitations he has in other areas, he more than makes up with his gag rate; punchlines come at a heckler-proof rate and he has the confidence and the gift of the gab that will help him spa with the most lively audience, or inject a spark of energy into the most moribund one. The mischievous charm stands him in very good stead, and you can forgive a lot from someone who comes up with a joke as silly as his plectrum-swallowing one.

Oakley is an accomplished guitarist, drummer and harmonica player, but his biggest talent is his relentless bonhomie, making for an engagingly inane performance.

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Very skilled musician, but seems to have stolen the O Fortuna skit that Rainer Hersch was finishing on years ago.

Kev Cork, December 2004

Can be both absolutely inspired and horribly predictable. If he was a harsher editor of his material he could be superb.

Nelson, November 2004

Stormed a rowdy university crowd, and created his own fan club in the meantime.

Anna K, October 2004

If anything, Duncan Oakley appears to have got worse since your review. A singer/guitarist doing twenty minutes of miserable one-liners and string of nob jokes - that is just what I don t need at the end of a long day. His closing routine with misheard lyrics held up to the tune of Carmina Burana has been plagiarised from a much better act.

Nick Malek, June 2004

Stunningly poor.

Karen Maybury, May 2004

One of the best musical acts on the circuit. In fact, just one of the best acts, period.

Brent, May 2004

Superb. Anyone that can mix awesome guitar riffs with belting comedy has won me over right away.

Chris Brooker, May 2004

Two encores at the Scarborough comedy club last night. Very very talented with real warmth and energy. A joy.

Glenn, March 2004

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