Feastival was a festival of hilarity. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the show as it was only a one-night stand. However, as most of the performers are strong bets for the Footlights committee or have already been elected, all bodes well for next season (especially if last night is anything to go by). Here are some thoughts on individual performances, for what they are worth:

The compère, Ellen Robertson, was fantastic, with varied material and perfect delivery. Notably, she talked about family life, namely that she suspects her parents prefer her brothers to her, and also gave an exclusive reading of her recent works: a vaginal monologue and poem. Her comedy has edge. It’s odd, uncanny, gives no clues as to where it’ll lead next, and it works brilliantly.

Adrian Gray turned up as bad boi Gavin, giving a presentation on his project entitled ‘Broken Britain’. The best bit of this sketch was when he read out a screenplay written for his creative writing module about the privatisation of the NHS. It featured Nick Clegg in a lighthouse being attacked by an Orca representing democracy. Clegg proceeded to ‘fist’ the Orca with his policies, making it explode. Adrian then went on to give a short stand-up set where he tested out the Yahoo Answers guide to speaking to women. Here the show was, in fact, stolen by the audience ‘volunteer’, a certain Natasha, who somehow managed to upstage Adrian (no mean feat).

Archie Henderson-Cleland delighted us throughout the evening, assuming the identities of a clinically depressed Hugh Jackman giving a tour of his yurt in song, Hans the salsa-dancing Velociraptor and Felicity Bywater, a holistic health practitioner. What made Archie’s unusual characters so funny was the incongruity of their traits; Hans alone was an amazing mix of Brüno, dinosaurs and salsa. But in regards to Felicity Bywater’s Inuit throat singing, I could give him a tip or two (it’s my party-trick).

Luke Sumner had a rather strange opening to his set, in which he feigned nervousness and asked an audience member to hold his hand. The second part was much stronger, with amazing impressions of Jay-Z and Woody Allen. By cleverly alternating between his two characters, Luke proved to the audience that Jay-Z and Woody Allen were in fact the same person. It is so difficult to do impressions well, but Luke had those two nailed, right down to the characters’ subtlest expressions and mannerisms.

Tom Fraser had the most imposing stage presence of all the performers. He delighted the audience with a frivolous story of being interrupted on the loo by his 10 year-old sister. Dissatisfied with what he had said at the time (a rather creepy ‘hello’) Tom got an audience member to play the part of his sister and came out with a list of alternatives he could have used. The second part of Tom’s set was a fun concatenation of ‘app’ puns to fill gaps he has spotted in the market such as ‘cappitalism’ and its nemesis the ‘marxist approach’.

All in all a hilarious evening, which served as a preview of sorts for next term’s Footlights agenda under a new regime. Let me tell you, the omens are good.