Funny Business: Andrew O'Neill (Review By Stief)

Andrew O Neill & James Dunn, Clwb Ifor Bach

After a brief intro by Andrew O’Neill, in which he acknowledged the Musipedia’s own Paul Scoble having a comedy event across the road (and apologising), it was time for local lad James Dunn (8), who was hand-picked by Andrew for the support slot and although the initial nerves were obvious, he gradually relaxed. A mixture of anecdotes about his work as a teacher, and sharing the anxiety of having a single table to yourself in Nandos, his material plays it safe. That being said, there’s definite talent there, and although he tended to punctuate every other word with the odd ‘fuck’ or ‘fuckin’, I put that more down to nerves than anything.

Now, not a lot of comedy sets start with a man wearing ram horns chanting an Orphic hymn to Hermes complete with frankincense from a censer, but Andrew O’Neill (10) isn’t any regular comedian. Having been in comedy for over a decade now, he’s definitely cut from a different cloth. An interesting look at the use of magic, Andrew O’Neill’s Black Magick fun hour (spelt with a k so you know he’s serious) was a wild ride. As already mentioned, a good chunk of the show was dedicated to the study and use of magick in the modern world, something Andrew is more than willing to admit he believes in, with him telling tales of using drugs to enhance his experiences as well as various rituals invoking gods such as Mercury and Hermes.

Right from the start, there were sentences interspersed with what seemed to be random outbursts, punchlines without a joke, until finally coming to fruition halfway through the set. The classic Andrew O’Neill brand musical tangents were in full swing too, as well as more fleshed out songs, including comedic covers of songs such as Don’t Fear The Reaper, which by his own admission were Andrew’s least favourite form of comedy and only performed to entertain his cat, Ghost. Ending with an almost stream-of-consciousness talk backed by soft guitar in the vein of Demetri Martin, Andrew informed us we had all invoked Mercury through the show, and he ‘will fuck our shit up’ we politely told the God of eloquence and Communication to kindly fuck off, banishing him. A brilliant night with a pair of very funny men.