Review of ten frontrunners from the next generation of comedy talent

The 19 years of the Chortle Student Comedy Award have - like the wider stand-up world – witnessed many trends. The year almost everyone wanted to be Stewart Lee, with long, repetitive, drawn-out routines. Or the year, gawd help us, that everyone was sarcastic, sneery Ricky Gervais. Yeah?

But 2023 was surely one of the most diverse finals in terms of the young comics’ styles and approaches – making for an interesting and varied bill that surely offered something for everyone. And yes, I would say that…

Josh Adkins got the ball rolling with something you don’t hear too often on the circuit: an unapologetic declaration of being a Christian. But don’t fear, he has got solid jokes, about it – this isn’t evangelism. Whether belief in God is more or less likely given the tough upbringing he describes is open for debate, but he has turned horrible experiences into dark comedy.

He’s arguably a bit glib sometimes, making some incidents he describes seem like bad-taste fictions, yet the jokes land hard precisely because they deal with such bleak topics. It was certainly enough to land him the runner’s-up place.

Deadpan Glaswegian Daniel Petrie offered a droll observational routine, enhanced by his slow, careful phrasing that built anticipation for each line. The comic – who was previously named Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year –  played up on stereotypical rivalries, but revels mainly in the minutiae of the mundane, for example, a change in the way they serve the baked potato at the NHS canteen where he works.

Dublin-based American Katie Carrig has a cheery conversational style, deployed to discuss how they are working through their gender and sexual identity – which allows for several savvy jibes about the awfulness of straight white men. It’s delivered playfully, but with a definite agenda. 

Carrig’s set became a bit jumbled towards the end, confusing the audience by not properly explaining a news story about Danish sperm being imported to Ireland. But they have an engaging personality and openness than endears.

Ivo Pope also mocked alpha-masculinity in his character act, adopting the guise of an ambitious business guru (‘what’s Ivo short for? Ivo-nt The Job’ ) try to motivating the audience into being winners, not the sort of losers who waste time on watching live entertainment when they could be maximising their income streams. 

Privately educated, money-hungry privilege may be an easy target – but it’s certainly a deserving one, and Pope has written gags that perform with the efficiency you would expect from such a ruthless business leader – and delivered with the requisite arrogant swagger.

For contrast, Emerson Young has a low status – autistic, dyspraxic, but noticeably happy to be on stage where being an eccentric outsider is celebrated. There are not many jobs where you can vigorously act out being a seagull in flight – as this young Yorkshire comic so memorably did.

While he revels in the absurdities of his life with a surrealism-tinged routine, Young can also write solid jokes, delivered with a surety that contrasts with his apparent vulnerability and authentic, unpolished delivery.

Riki Msindo, on the other hand, is the epitome of easy confidence – relaxed and charming as he shares tales of his blunt-talking African mother, being a chubby kid, and being educated at a posh private school where he could exploit liberal guilt. 

He has a delightful way of bringing his anecdotes to life, generously sprinkled with witty lines and gently self-effacing, that really draws the audience in. He feels like a mainstream star in the making, and taking first place tonight is only the start of it…

Also with a well-honed delivered is Mushin Yesilada, another effortlessly assured comedian and one who draws on his Muslim and Middle Eastern background – but a lot more on his own idiocy – in his solidly funny set. 

Misunderstanding the situation seems to run in the family – from his dad watching a roast battle to his nine-year-old nephew’s response to racism at school – and Yesilada shares these entertaining stories with the poise of an experienced pro in command of the room and his material.

OK,  there was one comic on the bill who did take his cue from Stewart Lee – but Alex Knipe made such a good job of his forensically sarcastic takedown of the vacuous corporate responses to the Queen’s death last year that he’s more than forgiven. 

Adopting a sombre tone as he formally announces the fictional – but borderline credible - tweets adds to absurdity of the messaging sent out by marketing departments at the time that he so effectively, and wittily, demolishes.

Londoner Hannah Yarwood is a much less honed comedian, but her ebullient, fast-talking OCD personality has an engaging energy as she draws on her Jewish heritage (and associated stereotypes) as well as her drama-degree education to good effect. 

Finally, Michael McKenzie has a lot to draw on from his experiences of the health service – both as a long-term patient in his youth and as a trainee doctor now. He’d have a great bedside manner, reassuring and cheekily funny, with some interesting incidents to share: such as the patient who got entirely the wrong end of the stick about clowns.

As with so much  medical humour, much of this material quite dark, but selling it with a smile softens the blow, And as a comic with one leg, he’s given the latitude to go into uncomfortable territory and make it palatable. Indeed he closes with a melodic song about dating disabled people that comes from that boundary of good taste which always proves so fertile.

• Watch the finalists here – or listen to the Radio 4Extra broadcast here. 

Review date: 14 Jul 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Up The Creek