Playing to a sold out , home crowd of family , friends and fans of this extremely popular, highly likeable and extremely watchable home grown Manc comedian on a Friday night at the beautiful Royal Exchange was Brennan Reece. What a brilliant venue and I was interested how he’d play to the audience in the round but he absolutely revelled in it and worked every curve as he assessed his audience and fed off their laughter.
With three supporting acts to open and warm up the crowd was the ‘ intense eyed ‘ Larry Dean whose manic expressions, quick patter and physical comedy, Norman Wisdomesque face pulling and self analysis of his Autism making him conclude that all his previous relationships were gas lighters had me howling. Next, was Tito Giacotto, an ex-professional Sicilian footballer now based in Manchester ……… The final warm up was the excellent Hayley Ellis whose self-deprecating poke at her tired face and eyes had me in stitches. She is definitely a lady I will be following and trying to get to see, again.
Onto the main event; Brennan Reece. A master showman with funny bones. He is mischievously enigmatic and bounces around that stage with devilry in his blood. He throws his jabs and then coquettishly backs away behind a thin, camp veil. I had the pleasure of watching this show in its infancy at Edinburgh Fringe last summer and the narrative and essence is the same but it’s had lots of layers and detail sewn into it ,now.
Brennan explores and digs to find an answer in his joke back catalogue as to which one was THE offensive quip which lost him a job as a CBBC presenter (true story). Reece is a well-loved compere at Comedy shows around the UK and a master of his craft with successful and sold out shows galore and many TV appearances including: Live at the Apollo ;but the elusive TV job must have bitten hard when it was swiped away for reasons of a comment being offensive ..then not being told which comment. And from this starting point, the show ensues: exploring the nature of a joke . One man’s trigger is another’s belly laugh. Nothing is off limits from dead grandma with Rue Paul make up to an invitation to join a gay threesome, teenage attempts at self- fellatio (but busted by mum and dad) online dating and realising he’s so old because his matches are called Denise and Cassandra, telling us how his mum had been in Jimmy Saville’s caravan but nothing happened and years later when his historic sex offences came to light she was gutted ( hinting at her missing out on compensation), all in the name of humour. His audience who were all a ready baked fan base of love who chortled and howled in appreciation at his brand of comedy. He declared that jokes are social glue. I concur. We all have our levels and I love his brand and flavour of fun and laughter but one person’s honey is another’s Marmite. The Manchester crowd adored it.
One of my favourite parts was Brennan’s constant nods to the venue and its more usual theatrical performances held there . Establishing a Hamlet pose to begin each segue was highly amusing and even the heckler in the gallery didn’t put him off; using his Shakespearean self-discipline and confidence ; he fed off it and didn’t even need the bouncers to throw him out- unlike a nearby larger scale comedy gig. Brennan Reece is a superb stand-up comedian. He is a joyously effervescent funny guy who feels like a fountain of endless one liners and come backs.
This is show 12 of just 16 shows with only four more to go in Edinburgh, Brighton, Leeds and Cardiff ending in June. Look out for man. Even if he isn’t good enough for Auntie Beeb’s watershed he was definitely good enough for us.
Ticket info from www.BrennanReece.com
Reviewer: Kathryn Gorton
Reviewed: 21st March 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 4 out of 5.
