There are so many observational stand-up comedians on the circuit and on TV that at times you yearn for something a little bit different. The Boy With Tape On His Face delivers just that and he filled the Lincoln Drill Hall to capacity when he opened the Lincoln Comedy Festival on Saturday night.

New Zealander Sam Wills is rapidly moving towards the comedy mainstream with his unique and inventive show – part mime, part vaudeville, part puppetry. With his mouth sealed by a strip of black gaffer tape he relies on his props, his facial expressions, his body and willing members of his audience as he romps through an hour of hilarious sight gags and physical routines.

In The Boy’s boundless imagination oven gloves can sing a duet and tape measures can become lightsabers; a hairdryer can become a golf tee and grown men can face off in a staple gun duel, wearing goggles and popping balloons wedged under their arms and between their legs.

The act relies on the audience to play along, and the Lincoln crowd did just that, though one young volunteer tried to create some comedy of his own and was promptly sent back to his seat in disgrace. It was typical of The Boy’s on-stage persona: the routines are truly funny but The Boy is by turns puzzled, cross, impatient, indignant and rarely satisfied with the efforts of his stooges.

With tape on his face The Boy never says a word, but music is an integral part of the show – now the theme to Superman, now Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyrie, now Cher’s Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss). Each piece of music established a different mood or lined up a new punchline, and the timing was always spot on.

This was a terrific start to the Lincoln Comedy Festival, which is now firmly established as a major event in the city’s cultural calendar. If you still haven’t seen him, make sure you catch Sam Wills on his next visit to Lincoln.

Jez Ashberry

Ben Poole as Jerry Lukowski in The Full Monty

I’ve never known an atmosphere like it in the Drill Hall: a heightened, slightly frenzied aura of anticipation generated by a mostly female audience in the grip of a collective mania.

Yes, I was at the closing night of The Full Monty, the debut production by newcomers Jolly Mule. A new group they may be, but they’re veterans of musicals at the Theatre Royal and they know how to put on a show.

I think it’s fair to say that many of the spectators at the last night were more interested in the male stripping than in the niceties of the music, the acting or the costumes. And it’s also fair to say that they would have been disappointed by neither: the boys certainly did do The Full Monty at the very climax of the show, though their modesty was spared by some nifty lighting effects and a quick blackout.

Some people in the audience (including me) were expecting a stage version of the Oscar-winning 1997 film set in Sheffield, so the American accents and the full-on musical score came as a bit of a surprise. But the sense of dislocation soon receded as Jolly Mule romped into their high-energy show. The story – and, I believe the company itself – was driven forward by Lincoln stage stalwart Ben Poole, who has a long pedigree as an actor and singer of some distinction. As Jerry Lukowski, a recently laid-off and divorced steel worker who’s trying to raise the money for the child support payments for his only son, he embodied the isolation, the disillusionment and the despair of a generation of men laid low by unemployment.

Inspired by the Chippendales, who have been performing in Buffalo, and desperate to make some money, Jerry and his friends decide to form a male strip act. Their decision turns out to be life-changing, since it enables them to regain control of their lives and address their issues of low self-confidence, negative body image and sexual frustration.

Ben Poole was ably supported by a talented and versatile cast but there were some stand-out performances, notably from young Jamie Bendy as the suicidal Malcolm MacGregor, Katie Warnsby as Vicki, the wife of one of the strippers, and Linda Croston as Jeanette Burmeister, the pianist who gives the men the confidence to go through with their plan.

Larger-than-life Ian Smith contributed a hilarious cameo as an unsuccessul would-be stripper and it was touching to witness the development of Peter Merrick’s character Harold Nichols as he hid the truth about his redundancy behind a facade of expensive consumer items purchased on credit for his wife.

The only false note in a high-quality show was struck by the casting of Matt Brian as Horse. While his breakdancing, funky moves and accent were all utterly convincing his spray tan certainly wasn’t; I couldn’t help feeling that the time for blacking up white actors to play black roles has surely passed.

Jolly Mule made a brave decision in choosing the Drill Hall over the Theatre Royal for their first outing, and judging by the full houses and the rapturous standing ovation it was also a wise one. Fans of musicals will be looking forward to seeing what they do for an encore.

Jez Ashberry

The music, the moves, the cheers – JLS live in Lincolnshire at the weekend was quite simply massive!  When the four-piece band swept the stage, the roar of the crowds made it almost impossible to chat to the person next to you, with people ranging from 60 to six-years old joining in the celebrations.

And the LoveLincoln.co.uk team were no exception! Organisers estimate around 10,000 to 12,000 fans – with around 2,500 of those buying tickets on the day – turned out to the packed Sunday concert at Lincolnshire Showground, which was the final of six open air summer shows.

Gates opened at 3pm, with the music starting around 5pm, although the only things to do until that point were take in a fairground ride or munch on something from one of the food stands.

Exploding on to the stage from the ground up, the band, made up of Aston Merrygold, Oritsé Williams, J.B. Gill and Marvin Humes, pulled out all the stops, with a backdrop of massive screens showing light displays, music videos and live action, a team of dancers and a midway outfit change.

JLS – which stands for Jack the Lads Swing – were runners up to singer Alexandra Burke in the fifth season of ITV’s X Factor – but they were definitely the stars of the show this time round when the crowds were treated to their first two number one singles, Beat Again and Everybody in Love as well as The Club Is Alive, Love You More and She Makes Me Wanna. The latter even saw the buffed boys teach fans a dance move just moments the crowd heard how Aston will be a judge on Got to Dance.

The warm-up acts, including relative unknowns A*M*E, NVS and I Am Titch, did their best, although they failed to entirely hit the spot, being thoroughly outshined by Barbados band Cover Drive, which worked the crowd into a frenzy with their former number one track Twilight and their latest single Explode – as well as some Bajan dance moves.

Fellow X Factor contestant Little Mix were also riding high after it was confirmed just before they came on stage that their single Wings had made it to the number one spot in the official charts – but some remained unconvinced about a cover of the Nicki Minaj song Super Bass.

The JLS boys hinted at “bigger things to come” and “loads coming up this year” – but didn’t go into more detail than that. Watching the sun set behind the stage put the final polish on the performance.  It’s safe to say that mums and dads bringing their little ones to the show will have also been turned into JLS fans!

The Veolia Environnement wildlife photographer of the year exhibition is on display at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln. This year Daniel Beltrá from Spain was named Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year after his image Still Life in Oil was voted the most striking and memorable of all the competition’s entries, writes George Cannon.

The competition has been running since 1965 and is one of the most well known and respected photograph exhibitions across the world with entries from countries worldwide ranging from the UK to Malaysia. I have never been a fan of art or taken a photograph for the fun of it and I could never understand why people do. That was until I saw this exhibition.

Some of the photographs are extraordinary and definitely worth going to see, many of them show the world from the animals’ point of view.

The winning photograph was taken by a journalist who had entered the competition with a series of six photographs that told a story of the BP oil disaster (2010) and the effect it had on wildlife. Together the six photos were so dramatic and powerful but as an individual photo Still Life in Oil, in my opinion, did not have the same effect. So instead of agreeing with the judges I chose my own favorite.

This was it. Believe it or not, it’s the winner of the Aged 10 and Under category. Commenting on the photo one of the judges remarked: “A picture to stop you in your tracks and make you marvel – an unforgettable portrait from an insect point of view.”

The photographer Hui Yu Kim said: “I want people to know that all creatures, even small ones, count.’’

This picture makes you wonder what the insect must have been thinking as a massive camera lens was being pointed in its face.

Some pictures look staged, like the animal is teasing the photographer with a chance of a lifetime opportunity to take a winning snap before it continues with whatever it was doing, be it casually taking a stroll or killing its dinner.

The whole collection boasts colour, emotion and natural beauty and I believe it proves that animals aren’t a lesser species of us humans as there’s no way we could express beauty, elegance, death and danger in the way that humans have captured animals expressing just that.

George Cannon is a Year 10 pupil at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Horncastle.