Photo of Rob Brydon (left) by Irregular Shed

If only Rob Brydon was prescribed on the NHS in Wales. We could get well sooner and save so much money by just learning to laugh at ourselves and avoiding all those happy pills.

Brydon rocked the house in Brecon last night. Theatr Brycheiniog is quite a small theatre at nearly five-hundred seats but it felt much more intimate than some of the larger venues on his tour. Sitting in seat AA1 might have helped me feel closer to the action too.

There were problems with the theatre’s sound system for the first quarter of an hour, but Brydon made it work for him. “I’ll never forget Brecon… it was a cowing disaster,” he quipped. And then he glanced back stage and pronounced “someone will lose their job and it won’t be me.” I don’t think that was a joke. The speakers that rang like tinnitus were soon fixed.

On stage Rob Brydon made it look so effortless. It seemed as if most of the act was ad libbed. He wove intricate stories around members of the audience as he chatted with most of the two front rows. Amongst the audience members he ‘bonded’ closely with were a fork lift truck mechanic from Herefordshire, a primary school teacher from Aberdare and, much to Brydon’s amazement and interest, a “Welsh noodle miner” from the Crumlin factory making Pot Noodles.

There was extra special attention for people from Merthyr and Neath, as well as the English, who were mercilessly made fun of. And a young woman called Eleanor sitting in the front of the theatre was in hysterics at Rob Brydon’s many suggestive comments… directed at her.

The show came to a finale with Rob Brydon singing a melody of famous songs – such as Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’ and George Michael’s ‘Gotta Have Faith’ – but sung in a variety of hilarious Welsh accents. He then sang an old Led Zeppelin classic weaving a storyline around all the members of the audience he had talked to during his show. It was amazing. How on earth he came up with all these ideas for this song during his show is part of the secret of his success. He is a very talented comedian. Grab a ticket if you can.

For an encore, Rob Brydon sang Islands in the Stream which he sang as part of the award-winning BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey. Here’s a clip on Youtube of his ‘Uncle Bryn’ character singing the same song … enjoy. And don’t forget to ask your Doctor to prescribe a ticket for a Rob Brydon show. It’s worth a try.

YouTube Direktvideo link

Photo by Irregular Shed Photo Licensed Under a Creative Commons License. See copy here.

On the heels of the photo of Andrew Rowe’s Kite Trail at Aberavon we have added photos of his 1997 seating sculpture in front of Theatr Brycheiniog.

Click here to see the Set