Rhys James at the Stag Theatre

Our May Cog Night coincided with our annual Discussion Day. Several of the team work remotely so these days are a rare opportunity to catch up in person, to celebrate the wins and plan for the future. This year we all met at Michael’s home in the Kent countryside.

After a day of keynote slides, discussions, and a scavenger hunt, we headed to Michael’s ‘local’ venue, The Stag in Sevenoaks, for a night of comedy.

Some of the Cog team on a scavenger hunt in the woodlands of Kent.

As a non-local, I didn’t quite know what to expect from a Sevenoaks crowd, but the show turned out to be a fun reminder of why live comedy is so great.

The night kicked off with MC David Ward, who immediately woke the room up. His traditional, crowd-work format was exactly what the room needed. He was interactive, sharp, and did a brilliant job softening up the audience before handing over to the first support, a comic named Joe (sorry, Joe, I’ve forgotten your surname).

Joe delivered a set that I would describe as pure ‘millennial core’ – and as a millennial myself, I speak with some authority on the matter. He dived straight into the chaotic world of the dating app ‘Feeld’, kinks, and the cultural sanctuary of the Turkish barber. While the humour was drawn largely from a male perspective, it was still a highly relatable and funny slice of modern male angst.

Some of the Cog team (one with horns) ready for some laughs

Then came the headliner, Rhys James, who was using the night to test out material for his upcoming tour, Chop Logic. The moment he walked out, his stage confidence was undeniable; you just knew that being on stage was second nature to him.

What made the set incredibly funny, especially from my perspective as an outsider, was Rhys’s ongoing realisation that he was performing his set about the everyday struggles of modern life to a room full of affluent ‘posh’ Sevenoaks residents. Blinded by the stage lights, he clearly couldn’t se our contingent of London youth sitting toward the back.

e launched into a brilliant, left-leaning tirade about how Baby Boomers have ruined absolutely everything, expecting a very specific, defensive reaction. He completely ran with the stereotype, and watching the friction between his assumptions and the makeup of the room was half the entertainment.

Even in the work-in-progress stage, Rhys’s writing is still spectacularly funny, and two stories absolutely stole the night for me. First was a frantically anxious, hilarious story about the logistical nightmare of accidentally leaving a medical poo sample on a train. This was peak Rhys James, overthinking an undignified situation to absolute perfection.

Then came his rant on washing machines – questioning if this is really the peak of human engineering when every wash cycle ends with all of his clothes stuffed into the corner of a single duvet sheet. His physical presence added a lot to the jokes here, using great reenactments and hand gestures to drive the point home.

Getting to watch a top-tier comic navigate a work-in-progress show is always a treat. Now, I’m just intrigued to see how many of these exact gags make the final cut for his official tour!

Illustration by Yufei Yang for our Cultural Calendar.