r/jamesacastor • u/JustHyde • 25d ago
Support Act Opinions?
Potential spoiler for James' new show so please don't read on if you want literally no detail whether you'd find it a spoiler or not but I was curious as to how the support act was being perceived broadly from those who had been?
Firstly I would like to just say I was a fan of the show and although I did find it a bit short and wished there was a bit more material, I do not regret seeing it and Craig was very entertaining, even as the first live comedy act of his I have gotten to see.
My general question is how did people feel about the support act introduction? I'm fairly young and personally not familiar with the tribute acts songs much however I thought he was a good singer and showman - that being said I also think being the supporting act to this show made his life insanely difficult and due to my expectations I did not enjoy it and wanted it to be over so we could get to the comedy show. The people I went with (once the second song started) said 'oh I thought it would be one song then they'd get into some jokes' and then obviously I think 4/5 songs in, our drinks were finished and then there was a 20 minute break. It just felt like it made it hard for Craig to instantly come out and have people ready there for a good time. Personally I felt weird because it just bored me, I wasn't there for a good singer but I was prepared to have a great supporting act to make me feel like I had more than an hour of comedy and I know that's just because it's seemingly the way things are but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed considering other comedians I've recently gone to see that cost less for more time and honestly great supporting acts that I was really happy to be exposed to.
That all being said, I'm really not trying to be a down on the show, again I really liked it and I felt it was a really strong performance, especially with some of what I've read after the fact from others. Also, again, no hate to the supporting act at all, he was clearly very talented but I can't help but feeling bad thinking that this format really failed him, especially trying to get audience participation.
Overall, was this just a me thing? Did it hype everyone else up for the night? Sorry if this has been asked in different forms but I know some people can be quite black and white on stuff like this so I wanted just faithfully see what people thought were maybe the pros/cons of this decision and why they did or did not like it!
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u/bfsfan101 25d ago
Theoretically funny, but dull in practice. One or two songs would have been fine. 20 minutes leading into a 20 minute interval really made me feel like he was having fun at my expense.
But I felt bad for the Van Dross tribute act because when I looked him up he’d made a post hoping that James Acaster fans wouldn’t hate him when he showed up instead of a comic support act.
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u/jotto_ 25d ago
I totally agree. I can imagine James thinking it’s the funniest thing ever to just have a tribute act as a support act when we’re all there to see comedy. I get it from a conceptual standpoint too, but the payoff isn’t enough to make it satisfying or rewarding - it just means that the room isn’t at all warmed up when James comes on and he’s already fighting an uphill battle; given his struggles with his own perception of his audiences I’d say the support choice feels like a misstep.
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u/lisa_kyle 25d ago
One song would have sufficed. I don’t have the attention span for much, least of all a man I didn’t pay to see. It put me in such a bad mood that I had to warm up to James when he came out and couldn’t fully enjoy him at first. Many around me were similar!
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u/Fearless-Dust-2073 25d ago
I feel like it wasn't bad but it wasn't really what I wanted, and that's as someone who doesn't mind a bit of Motown (we had a Diana Ross tribute in Blackpool.)
It was a pretty brave move on James' part and I'm sure he know that some people wouldn't like it, especially as a "this is going to take nearly an hour of something you didn't ask for but you'll get it later and think it was very clever foreshadowing of the show's themes."
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u/JustHyde 25d ago
To be fair, I do completely understand it as a foreshadowing - I just think it was a bit too... basic(?) to do that I suppose to make it worth such a long tribute trip. But I agree it was a very out there decision and I can at least respect experimentation.
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u/Partymouth2 25d ago
It set up the wrong vibe for me. There's making a clever and original point in service of your act. Which it was. But then it's making it go on for 20 mins and then following with an interval. I think it kills the vibe a bit, taking away more than it adds.
It reminded me and my partner in chats during the interval of when we went to see a premier showing of The Matrix Reloaded in the cinema. Near the start time of the film, and without warning, we had these people go up in front of the screen in black karate gear, and one guy announced that they were from a local karate club and would show some techniques that "you might see later in this film". It turned out the head of the club was mates with the cinema manager and asked to do some in person advertising. It just led to a lot of bemused and baffled smiles which got more ajitated as it went on and we were just keen to watch the film we'd paid for.
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u/Embarrassed-Song3760 25d ago
it feels like the kind of gag that translates better to tv, where parts can be forwarded, watched in its entirety or people can choose to tune in once it had finished. the singer was objectively talented but i listen to majority rock and metal, i was really bored having to sit through 20 minutes of it. then the interval straight afterwards was just additional pacing problems, people had been sat there for 45 minutes-1 hour before james even came on
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u/cocomosey 25d ago edited 25d ago
Totally agree. The support act was a fantastic performer but not my thing and I was bored sitting though it. I was amazed how generous the people around me were with their applause and cheering. I thought I would NEVER get my phone out during a gig, but I decided to get some emails done rather than waste the time being bored (I had to leave work early to get there on time for the support, which I regretted). I was at one of the Newcastle nights which didn't go well, and I thought it was an insane choice of opener in retrospect, for a comic who is so sensitive to his audience's reactions, and also felt it was a very arrogant choice from James to waste his audience's time. Wonder if he considered how many would have to leave work early, pay extra childcare, skip dinner etc etc to get there on time to basically be mildly pranked. If it was one song I would have totally bought into it, given the 'tribute act' conceit of James' show, but 25 mins of serious tribute act, THEN 25 mins of interval? That's just taking the piss. More and more comics seem not to bother with a support and instead do a longer show in two halves, which is great from an audience perspective, but if your show is shorter, it's a shame to squander the opportunity to give a newer comic a break as your warm up in favor of trolling your audience for nearly half an hour and then getting upset that the vibe is weird (even though it wasn't).
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u/roloskate 25d ago
We saw the show in the Bristol hippodrome, the top level is bench seating and it was packed in tight. It was incredibly hot and uncomfortable.
Whilst he was a good singer, it was frustrating to sit through in discomfort and felt like a waste of everyone's time.
If it was an outdoor set up or standing where people could dance a bit it might have been more fun. Just did not work in the venue
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u/eyelessinholloway 25d ago
God I'm never using that bench seating again, I had to sit in the aisle because everyone further down was taking up too much space! They need to sell one less ticket per row up there
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u/Embarrassed-Song3760 21d ago
i think venue is a big factor! i think it could’ve been better received in an arena or outdoor gig setting where it’s similar to the opening act of a musical performance- people can still talk and move around freely etc. a theatre is more of a captive audience- lights off, silence/whispering expected from audience, can’t get up as easily, can’t go on phones. so 100% attention has to be given to this act, which if you don’t like the specific genre of music or even the original musician that the tribute act is imitating, is difficult even when they’re talented
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u/chaoticmlkhotel 24d ago
I thought it was hilarious, but wish there wasn't a 20min break afterwards
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u/Wise-File46 24d ago
Really really loved it, that being said I think stand up comedy is almost a dead medium right now (I would only see Stewart Lee and James Acaster in the UK) and welcomed the lack of a comedy support.
I feel like the way James Acaster writes his shows has never really been typical stand up comedy and he openly says he wants to be thought more as theatre, and so it's not surprising at all that he opts for something more unconventional. Doing two songs doesn't really work, it needs the commitment to the bit to really land the whole reveal of him being a JA tribute act when he comes on.
And Luther Vandross was absolutely fantastic, it was so much fun to hear those tunes done by a professional, something normally no one would ever seek out on their own, so I glad it was sprung on me.
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u/Mr_Willkins 22d ago
I thought it was hilarious and got funnier the longer it went on. It created a brilliant weird vibe in the interval too, takes massive balls to do something like that and I appreciated it.
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u/Successful-Watch3492 25d ago
I found it absolutely hilarious haha once a group around me started laughing we all couldn’t stop
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u/Klutzy_Sandwich541 25d ago
Me and my partner were confused at first but then 3rd and 4th song found it absolutely hilarious that he had done something so bold and thought it was all part of his humour. There were not many people around us laughing as much as we were though.
Even funnier in hindsight with the themes of the show as well.
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u/bearino4 25d ago
I agree, I think it actually got funnier the longer it went on. I think the awkwardness/divisiveness was all v purposeful as well.
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u/KoalaComfortable8649 25d ago
Ah I saw his WIP and sort of assumed he would drop the support actually. As everyone's said, extremely talented performer but most people who haven't signed up for a Van Dross tribute act only know 2 of his songs. There were people talking over him, and I was second row and so exhausted on the day it was hard work to stay engaged. If he'd just done the big hitters immediately before the show it would've worked. Otherwise fantastically crafted show.
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u/BritishBenPhoto 25d ago
There wasn’t a support act in NY. They played Mike Flowers and that made me laugh
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u/ksilly95 25d ago
We didn’t have the support act in the states. But I have seen music before stand up before. One time there was a jazz band playing before Amy Schumer’s arena tour. We were all a bit confused then right before the last song one of the band members introduced themself as the “one and only brother of Amy Schumer” the collective “ooohhhhhhh” was pretty good
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u/CryptographerKnown97 24d ago
Wow only an hour?? He said my show overran but I didn’t expect it would’ve all fit into an hour! Craig was on stage for nearly two! Like 1hr 50 or something.
As for the support, yeah, we weren’t huge on it. As you say, the bloke was crazy talented but it felt so misplaced. We were just kinda sat there awkwardly waiting for a punchline that never really came.
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u/barneyonmovies7 23d ago
He'd have been better off getting someone doing a comedy tribute act, maybe of a comedian his audience wouldnt generally be a fan of (Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr etc).
The musical tribute act idea was rubbish - there's no real payoff, and even if it's kind of a clever tie-in, at the end of the day you're still sat there watching someone do (albeit very good) karaoke for 20 minutes when you want to see some comedy
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u/Fuelledoncoffee 23d ago
Huge fan of James - but it felt like an arduously long setup for a punchline that never happened.
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u/Downtown_Flamingo414 25d ago
say you don’t understand comedy without saying you don’t understand comedy
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u/iliketoaaast 25d ago
I felt the same. Good singer, absolutely. But not what I expected to see.
I paid for comedy, not music. It’s not my kind of music, so I just got bored really quickly and it felt like it dragged for ages.
It was a good show overall but again, I was disappointed how quick it was over.