Mitch Benn and The Distractions

It's an intimate setting in The Queen's Hall on South Clerk Street where Mitch Benn and his band The Distractions have come to perform. Benn's career has spanned over 15 years and includes the Glastonbury Best New Comedian award alongside stints on the Paramount Comedy Channel and BBC Radio 4. Tonight it seems that the audience is largely made up of people who have followed his career from the beginning, with over half admitting to having seen him before and the number of younger spectators very much in the minority.

From the outset Benn and his band's performance, while vocally and musically very skilled, is lacking in exciting material. The gags appear obvious and uninventive, particularly during a song on 'Motorway Food' and Benn's obvious distaste for it. While Benn maintains that he draws inspiration from news stories and at one point offers a song written during the interval on a topic chosen by the audience, the material still seems to lack innovation and excitement.

It is clear from the atmosphere of the evening that Benn retains a following of very loyal fans who both listen to his radio show and support his Twitter-related endeavours. However, when it comes musical humour such as this, the likes of newcomers on this scene such as Bo Burnham leave Benn's songs feeling lacklustre. The standard fodder of adjusting to middle age just serves to cement the sense of boredom and not even a rapped rendition of Macbeth, despite some witty phrasing, could bring Benn back on top of his game. That said, the music was incredibly pleasant to listen to, and you can’t help but think that the experience would have been a lot less painful if Benn hadn’t been trying to make people laugh.