Ardal O'Hanlon

I'd meant to tell you all about my evening out in Reading's concert hall to see this comedian. It was a wee while ago now but it has waited quietly.

Two things, really. What a beautiful room the concert hall is. It was all renovated a few years back and painted in tasteful colours - a very gracious room I would say, perhaps reminiscent of a methodist chapel. It houses the big wind organ called Father Willis that I remember being taken to hear played by a famous organist called Reginald Dixon. (Not Nixon - that was someone else).

The comedian was quite funny ina barmy sort of way, although my companion said she had heard some of the jokes before. He spoke for an hour, which I suppose is quite admirable in a way. There was a warm-up act of an Australian comedienne who had a similar frantic and slightly manic style. Some people thought she was a bit too blue but I wasn't expecting anything else and if anything she wasn't even as rude as Victoria Wood, who I saw maybe ten years ago.

What I am getting to is that my ticket cost £17.50, which if I'd realised beforehand and been given the choice, I would have rejected as toooooo expensive. I think people on low incomes are being denied so many things when goods are priced too high. I can't imagine why the price was put at that level. There were only two people on stage, one for just half an hour, the other an hour; there was no scenery, no costumes, no orchestra, no special lighting display. The answer is, I imagine, that there are plenty of people who can afford to pay £17.50 EASILY (the place was full) and so why not get what you can.