Live Report From William Regal’s ‘One Man Show’

Credit: Darren Gutteridge and Prowrestling.net

The last time I was at The Glee Club, it was to see Mick Foley’s “spoken word” show. The show was pre-loaded with wrestling-savvy comedians, who warmed up the crowd well before Foley made his way on stage. Foley did well, especially considering he hadn’t long set off on his stand-up journey (this was a few years ago now). But there were a few conceptual flaws. For one, Foley went out of his way to do more standard stand-up fare, as so not to ostracize any non-wrestling fans in the audience, but they lacked polish. And the QnA section had a few awkward questions thanks to no pre-vetting.

So I went in to William Regal’s show expecting something similar. Regal is even less experienced than Foley at this juncture, and I spotted two of the comedians who had performed at the Foley show milling about the audience prior to the show. But I’m happy to report my expectations were very off indeed.

The show did open with another comedian, but one much more appropriate. Jim Smallman isn’t just a comedian, but also the promoter of Progress Wrestling, the hottest UK Indie wrestling company. He told a few stories about being “threaten with death” by New Jack, and some of the crazy happenings from the Progress shows. He was the one to check the over/under of wrestling fans, and all but 1 of the roughly 150-200 people were fans (likely whetting their appetite before the B’Ham house show later). Without outstaying his welcome, Smallman quickly brought on Regal.

I won’t cover all the ground he covered, as so not to spoil any future shows, but Regal came across as both very humble and very likable. To begin with, his nerves were showing a little, not helped by the fact that for the most part he is a softly spoken person. But once the first few stories about British wrestling had warmed up the crowd, he was unstoppable, rattling off a very funny yet sincere stream of consciousness.

Happily, there were no “bits.” While I do truly admire Foley for trying to talk about things outside of the wrestling bubble, Regal knew his audience, both in terms of what they want, and where they were from. I suspect the humor will be different if he ever does this in America, as I feel quite a lot of it was “British jokes for British people”, which went down a treat.

Time flew by, and Regal himself was caught off-guard when Smallman said they had to take the interval. But he was soon back out for the QnA session. Regal stated the only thing he wouldn’t be doing is burying people, but everything else was on the table. Once again, there was no pre-vetting of questions, but the only one that ruffled the feathers of Smallman (who had the mic in the audience) was one about Regal’s infamous match with Goldberg in WCW. Regal explained himself as he has done before in podcasts, before moving on to a “follow up story” that was funny, but far too crude to mention here.

Elsewhere, he covered the infamous “flight from hell” that landed him in an Alaskan jail, a humiliating night in West Virginia with “Laugh-A-Minute” Lance Storm (his Storm impression may have been the highlight of the show), and a great story about a WCW Christmas party with DDP and Van Hammer. And the last question of the night came from yours truly, and Regal was more than happy to shed a little light on the story I had read in Foley’s book (I think) about himself, Foley and Steve Austin ending up on a gay beach.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable show. You could sometimes tell that this wasn’t Regal’s natural environment for public speaking, but nothing ever fell flat. And with more practice, I got the feeling he can excel in the future. And he endeared himself to everyone in the Glee Club by swatting down the first guy to speak in the QnA sessions “Thank you” with a sincere “No, thank you” to everyone there. I implore you to check him out if he is ever appears near you.

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