On a bitingly cold and snowy night in Leicester, Nathan Caton still manages to attract a big house for his show Get Rich or Die Cryin'. The hip young Londoner, in corncrow-and-dreads hairstyle and city slicker casual gear, is an immediately engaging presence on stage at the Firebug club, dissing his teated fruit-drink bottle as undermining any macho posturing he may be tempted to do.
Caton is clearly too bright for any of that nonsense, though. He's a qualified architect, but has been involved in comedy for several years (he's 27 and feeling old, he tells us, because he has a teenage brother) and his grandmother, whose wisdom he relates in a fruity Antiguan accent, is unimpressed at his choice of career.
His comedy is mostly observational and his family plays a big part in Caton's act – and, being an extended group of step-relations and half-siblings, is clearly a rich source of material for the future - but at times he can get a little too detailed in his anecdotes. There's a lot of wit in the telling, but his writing needs to be shorter and sharper. And Caton's not a joke-teller as such, although he throws in the odd groaner, and does some well judged political material. An EDL march in Leicester, earlier that day throws up a neat reference to footballer John Terry, who stoutly maintains his innocence on a racism charge.
The comic is particularly strong on the silliness of rap lyrics – an easy target admittedly, but Caton mines some original material. He quotes his brother’s favourite, Tinie Tempah, from his song “The Pass Out” - “I got so many clothes/ I keeps some in my aunty's house“. “Go to IKEA,” Caton deadpans. He also does a nicely self-deprecating riff about making his 9-year-old sister's friend cry when he got into a cussing contest with her, ending with him insulting her mother. Again, it was funny but could have done with largescale editing.
I saw Caton when he was appearing in Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival. What started out as a degree-course project for a group of students has grown from its 1994 launch into the largest stand-up festival in Europe, and which now takes place each February in more than 20 venues across this unassuming but friendly East Midlands city. It has everything from club to theatre gigs and from newcomers to established stars. Among the big names appearing over the next two weeks are Sarah Millican, Chris Addison and Greg Davies, and other comics I recommend are Imran Yusuf, Tiffany Stevenson and Tom Wrigglesworth.
- Dave's Leicester Comedy Festival continues until 19 February