Playing to a small, impeccably-formed crowd, top comic Nicola Mantalios-Lovett kicked off Freshly Ground, getting everyone suitably warmed up, dishing out a warm ribbing, and near-stealing the show more than once with some effortlessly hilarious crowd work.

Spiky Heaton lass Lauren Pattison kicked off the night in effortless style, all unlucky in life and love as only a Geordie can be, before handing over to Camille Hall to introduce the room – and the world – to NHS porn. Perpetually sour John Scott landed nicely close to the knuckle, wrapping up several slaps to liberal sensibilities in tart, seething bows.

wonderfully compèred, with a packed line-up, a good crowd, and a delightfully cosy, lock-in-esque atmosphere

Looking for all the world as if he’d just been thrown from a moving car, jittery Jacob Tong lay down a nerve-wracking, side-splitting ten minutes, and Eddie Rivers kept things moving with a disarmingly swift set before the riotous Hal Branson came bounding in like a side-splitting, off-brand Brian Blessed.

Headlining the night were Alfie Joey and Cal Halbert as the Mimic Men, a delightful, archly-vaudevillian double-act who blasted through a seemingly bottomless barrel of charmingly old-school impersonations, before ending the night with a surprisingly intense game of comedy bingo. Really.

Wonderfully compèred, with a packed line-up, a good crowd, and a delightfully cosy, lock-in-esque atmosphere, Blakes might just be onto something here.

Live / Blakes Coffee and Kitchen / Newcastle upon Tyne / 14 June 2015

Originally published in Narc Magazine