Kevin Bridges, although only 28, has been performing comedy for 10 years. Strange to relate then, that he still gets rattled by hecklers (even friendly ones telling him he's awesome – “Relax, it's not a One Direction concert”) and that this otherwise excellent gig descended into acrimony with Bridges leaving the stage at the end clearly irritated.
It really wasn't that bad – and Bridges' annoyance was far greater than that of the audience, so let's begin with the many positives. In A Whole Different Story the Glaswegian relates what a year it has been – for him personally and in the broader political arena.
First there was the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, with Bridges unable to explain to an American why people voted against it; then the general election, about which he was equally befuddled – why would people vote for five more years of austerity? And, closer to home, finally shedding the extra weight he has carried since childhood.
Bridges, an accomplished storyteller and polished performer, tells several longish anecdotes, reproducing scenes and conversations with a range of terrific accents, about how his personal trainer making him give up carbs brought on fantasies about eating a spaghetti toastie, the art of making fajitas, and, most memorably, how a walk with his dog led to Bridges becoming a bit of an expert on the work of Diego Rivera.
He sneaks in some astute political gags, too. Talking about how Belfast is mostly safe these days, with terrorists “only” throwing the occasional petrol bomb, Bridges goes into a superb riff about how they have all taken up golf and now coach bomb-throwers in the art of lobbing – “It's all about the swing”; solving Greece's economic crisis through quoting (or misquoting) its ancient philosophers; while his answer to the UK's financial problems should give George Osborne at least a pause for thought because it has an unbeatable internal logic about creating spending power for the unemployed.
There's the occasional dip in form (a couples arguing on holiday has been done to death and Bridges has nothing new to say about it) but this is mostly terrific material, well delivered. At just over an hour, though, the audience would have cause to feel short-changed; 65 minutes is at least 30 less than comics of Bridges' stature do on major tours. And 10 years into his career, he really shouldn't be distracted to such a degree by the idiots among his fans.
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