A nervous comedian quietly walked onto the stage in a converted Strip Club on top of the Portland Hotel. A few mismatched chairs were bunched together- not exactly the classiest setting for a stand up show. But nevertheless, before long, I’d forgotten all about the location as Matt Grantham started his show.

It became obvious early on that, despite Grantham working in comedy for a number of years now, the man was slightly nervous. It didn’t help the fact that he felt the need to constantly put himself, or his show, down for the first 10 minutes. The worst part was he had no reason to be nervous. Grantham is a funny man, with some great material. Once he got over his initial nerves the show became something quite memorable.

Grantham’s insistence on including the audience was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was clear that he wanted to make the show as much ours as it was his. He let members of the audience choose what he was going to talk about, and when. He had a great rapport with his audience, and thank goodness he did. Its always a huge risk when a comedian tries to include the audience in their show, and more often than not it will fail. But whether it’s because they all grew to like Grantham pretty quickly, or they’d simply had to much to drink, the audience went along with Grantham and at times were almost as funny as the comedian himself. Grantham was at his funniest when responding to the audience, showing an obvious talent for improv.

Sure, he’s not perfect. A couple of jokes fell flat and with any other audience, the show could have been a disaster. But it was a fun, funny and enjoyable hour- what more can you ask? And how many lightbulbs does it take? Well, you’ll have to check out Grantham’s show to find out…