Luke Benson at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … Luke Benson is a promising new stand-up whose confidence and delivery has improved vastly over his short career.
Sun 31 January 2010
© Claudia Wass Tatiana Ostrakova at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … Tatiana Ostrakova is a Russian stand-up who claims to have come straight from playing Jongleurs Minsk.
Giacinto Palmieri at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … The audience took a while to warm to Giacinto Palmieri, perhaps trying to work out if his very thick Italian accent meant he was a character act.
Luke Graves at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … Luke Graves is a stand-up without any kind of hook, and while his material and delivery show promise, the routine feels under developed.
Abandonman at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … The shock of the night was that Abandoman, a three-man hip-hop group using a tagline (‘the seventh most popular hip-hop group in Ireland’) that’s very similar…
Nathaniel Metcalfe at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … There was a fair amount of noise and movement for the first few minutes of Nathaniel Metcalfe’s set, caused by the previous act.
Andrew Ryan at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … Andrew Ryan not only resembles Ardal O’Hanlon physically, but his mannerisms and delivery are uncannily O’Hanlonesque.
Alan Hudson at the 2010 Hackney Empire new act final
31/01/2010 … A personable performer, but with little to excite or inspire, young magician Alan Hudson doesn't have enough of an angle to stand out from the other magic acts on…