REVIEW: Chris Ramsey - All Growed Up

CHILDHOOD and fatherhood both provide a rich source of comedy for Chris Ramsey.

The amiable north-eastern comic — following his fellow genial Geordie Sarah Millican onto the City Hall stage a couple of months on — poses the question of when people consider themselves “grown up” (if ever) and if such a state is desirable.

It’s a quandary given sharper focus by Ramsey’s own status as a new dad.

He penned and premiered the tour show in Edinburgh when his wife was expecting the couple’s first child and had to postpone his Sheffield date when she went into labour: “You think you had a rough night with the gig being postponed,” he quips, “well, think how it was for me”.

So when he finally makes it to the re-arranged gig, Ramsey has six months’ perspective on life as a parent.

It’s safe to say — spoiler alert — that he’s enjoying it, and that can only add to his effervescent manner.

Ramsey is a fidget, forever walking across the stage and back, and his chipper demeanour would leave Michael McIntyre looking like a misery guts.

But incredibly, such a perky nature doesn’t grate as it might. Ramsey seems very likeable, not least because he seems so pleased to have made it to the heights where he can play the big room at the City Hall.

He even comes through shining when the thunder of his big entrance is stolen by a late-comer in the front row who turns out to have been given a free ticket outside the venue and admits he has “no idea” who Ramsey is.

Talk about bursting your ego bubble.

Far from coming across as irked, Ramsey finds this hilarious, thanking the mystery punter for saving him the trouble of catching audience members’ eyes for an ice-breaking, scene-setting opening segment where he compares people’s childhood hopes for when they grew up with the 2016 reality (indeed, the non-paying punter even lands himself a free drink).

The you-couldn’t-make-it-up beginning apart, this hour-and-a-bit show brings us routines on hide-and-seek, childhood pranks, the irritating kids of parents your own mum and dad met on holiday, new baby jargon and the wonders of storage.

Ramsey insists his comedy is based on real life, preferring it to be believable, and much of its charm comes from how easily the audience can identify with the scenarios being described.

One “bit” about befriending a builder on the housing estate when he lived in the only completed house is particularly memorable, while a childhood holiday routine builds to a superb crescendo.

All the while, Ramsey is expertly laying the foundations for a fabulous final line callback which brings the house down.

Grown up or not, Chris Ramsey comes across as the kind of guy you’d pay to make you laugh and be happy to have a pint with.

Which is not a bad combination if you ask me.