Stephen K Amos (Tour – Salford)

It’s the final week of a 72 date tour but Stephen K Amos’ Feelgood
Factor is as fresh and vibrant as ever. This self-assured comedian’s opener
of ‘Hello, this is God…’ sets the tone for a confident and thoroughly
enjoyable performance.

The show actually begins with an unannounced support act;
self-proclaimed ‘thin Justin Lee Collins’, Seann Walsh. After uniting the
audience with some casual Jordan/Katie bashing, he then launches into a low-key
but decent routine with plenty of slapstick visual comedy.

The main act follows a rather premature interval that lasts almost as
long as the support act, disrupting the momentum and forcing Amos to almost
start from scratch. Happily, the curtain rises on the second ‘half’ to Amos
dancing voraciously to Beyonce and by the last booty-shake, the audience easily
is back on-side. He then proceeds to take us on an energetic romp through his
London childhood, finding comedy in subjects as diverse as telephones, pay
packets and doing PE in your pants.

A good portion of the act involves Amos speaking to (picking on?) the
audience until they are giddy enough to burst into spontaneous giggles while he
stands silently on stage. He does use his ethnicity, through interestingly
not his sexuality, to get laughs but does it with a cheeky twinkle in his eye.

This clearly isn’t a guy who takes himself too seriously. Apart from a brief,
but forgivable, transgression into plugging his DVD and upcoming TV show, this
show it literally laugh-a-minute. If you’ve left it too late for the current
tour, be sure to book tickets for the next one.

– Poppy Helm