Graham Hey – Original Review

Note: This review is from 2007

Review by Steve Bennett

Graham Hey’s an old-fashioned showman with a relentless cavalcade of bam-bam-bam gags. The problem is that after a couple of strong openers, they quickly descend into the crushingly familiar.

More than 15 years ago, he wrote a joke book – and the same gags are still in use today, even though the are now creaky veterans. He’s supplied gags to the Daily Star and is a veteran of the package holiday clubs in the Costas, so you can understand why he practises easy, common-denominator stuff.

But it’s woefully uninventive compared to the rest of the stand-up circuit, full of standard, and often-heard, audience banter, formulaic pull-back-and-reveals (‘…and that’s why they banned me from Ikea’) and such tired old pub lines like condoms coming in ‘small, medium or liar’.

The ceaseless battering breaks down any audience resistance, and he has got that old-school way of having utter faith in the most blandly generic material - but it’s basically the same old nonsense any half-decent working men’s club act could reel off.

This consummate, if shameless, entertainer is also a magician, with a repertoire that includes an impressive mind-reading trick. But you don’t need to be a mind-reader to see his punchlines coming.

Read More

Published: 2 Nov 2007

Past Shows

Agent

We do not currently hold contact details for Graham Hey's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.