The Liverpool Comedy Festival is something to be proud of in the city. It captures the imagination of a collection of people for whom humour is their greatest asset. It has seen them through everything, from recessions, depressions and war, through political battles and turmoil. It has given them armour when the nation’s eye has turned against them and it has laughed alongside them and it has sheltered them from the worst excess of degeneration that the island of Westminster has seen fit to try and hurl their way. No amount of mud-slinging, of false accusations, so called friendly fire and destructive bombs can stop the people of Liverpool from enjoying it seems a well-timed joke, great plays, the well-armed comedian and the poets who set out to raise a smile.
In the only event held on the Wirral, Granty’s Inferno, local writing/journalistic legend Peter Grant hosted a night of poetry and music at the Dunsandles Bed and Breakfast Guest House in New Brighton and gave all who attended the evening; which was one in which solidarity and humour went more than hand in hand, it locked arms, manned the barricades of collective smiles and refused to let a good pun go to waste; a great night out.
The evening should have been held at Kathy Roberts’ inviting and welcoming book shop, Literally but due to demand and with the promise of the expert tones of Mr. Carl Chase, Mr. Dean Sullivan, Mr. Tony O’ Neill and the beautiful voice of Sue Hedges, the only possible thing to do was to take the show on the road for the first time since Peter Grant started up this particular evening in the Liverpool/Wirral calendar and inside Dunsandles, words flowed like wine at the wedding of Cana and like expensive whisky at the batchelor party the week before in Edinburgh.
The evening was opened by Peter Grant who thrilled the tight knit community with renditions of some poems, including Hindsight, Why I’ll Never Win Masterchef and Kulture Shock before passing the reigns over to Jamie Carragher, one of the super finds currently gaining experience on the Everyman Writing Programme, the enormously talented Carl Chase, who delighted all with his music, the wonderful actor Dean Sullivan who read one of Peter Grant’s poems with a style that many could only dream of being able to deliver, the sublime Susan Hedges and the Official People’s Poet of 2009 for Liverpool, the highly enjoyable Tony O’ Neill, who read selected gems from his newly published Buddha in a Hat collection.
There may not have been a farce on offer, there may have been no sign of an alternative comedian ready to tear strips of a Government because they deserved it, what there happened to be was a group of appreciative people listening intently to excellent poetry and music, of having a voice in the community and having the deliciousness of timing in which to perform as part of Granty’s Inferno.
The evening was bought to an excellent close by Mr. Carl Chase performing three more songs and ruminating on tales of the acting profession, of only the night could not have ended, what tales this stalwart of film, theatre and music could have thrilled the audience with.
Some evenings just come naturally, for Granty’s Inferno, it was just the most perfect of nights, pure poetry in motion.
Literally can be found online at www.literallybooks.co.uk
Ian D. Hall