Stewart Lee: If You Would Prefer A Milder Comedian...- Richmond Theatre

If You Would Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One

Writer/Performer: Stewart Lee
Reviewer: James Higgins

"Can anyone one tell me the name of their favourite high street coffee shop ?" asked Stewart Lee. "Starbucks" Came the reply from Candice in the front row. "Why is it your favourite ?".... Silence, Candice had fluffed her lines and Mr Lee looked exasperated. He looked even less impressed when after trying something else on the other side of the row that broke down as well. Eventually we got back on track and he started to slowly flow once more in his usual drawn out, over analyzing style with cutting re post and high intellect.

Earlier this year he returned to our TV screens for the first time in a decade with his BBC Show Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle and this date at Richmond was part of his nationwide tour culminating in a month's slot at The Leicester Square Theatre in December.

He has much to say about our dumbed down culture and the ability of today's more mainstream comedians to go for the easy observational gags (a nod to Michael Macintyre) and crude boring jokes (a nod to Boyle), especially on the panel shows that clearly infuriate him. He mentions fellow comic Frankie Boye's recent comments, that once comedians are past 40 they lose their anger and subsequently their edge, referring to him as '38 year old Frankie Boyle'. He admits he is less angry these days but as ever this observation comes with steely irony. It is at this point that Lee seems to become stirred by this anecdote and the rage starts to return fully. Jeremy Clarkson, his faux crusade against 'political correctness gone mad' and his Topgear side kick Richard 'the hamster' Hammond are given both barrels.

He rants at the emigrants who are after "a better quality of life" that only seems to amount to their ability to source larger prawns in former British colonies. He shares with us his disappointment with the media, culture and with the Government. We get urban vs country dwelling and discover how not even Otters will persuade him to abandon Hackney. The anger returns once more at full throttle and he leaps from the stage abandoning the mic, storming up the stairs to the dress circle and shouting madly at the audience. "Stop bit torrenting my DVD's" he yells "that is my living", we wouldn't dream of it Stewart. He meets a startled lady on the way back down and implores us to wait for a wee. He finishes on a touching song number, with a link to family and the onslaught of corporate advertising nonsense.

The Daily Mail maybe preparing their own cute version of 'Minority Report' style justice but before they do someone should tell them Mr Lee isn't really going to murder 'the Hamster', it was as Jeremy would say, 'just a joke'.
Stewart Lee is not everyone's cup of tea and doesn't create as many big laugh out loud moments as he could, but he is very clever and full of cutting satire. As he said whilst standing in a row of seats with no mic and out of breath, "am I not entertaining ?" To that I would say he certainly is, after all if we had preferred a milder comedian then we know what we should have done !

On Nationwide tour until 29th November 2009, In London 7th December 2009-17th January 2010
For more info click here

Roger McGough, That Awkward Age Tour - Liverpool Playhouse

That Awkward Age Tour

Writer/Performer: Roger McGough
Reviwers T& L Andrewes

Faced with writing a review of a poet reading his own work one might wonder whether to focus on performing capacity or literary merit. With actors, the furthering of the literary value depends on the quality of the performance. With a poet maybe we are looking for something different. W.B.Yeats for example uttered his words in a most tedious monotone, while T.S.Elliot was elegantly expressive. Actors reading sometimes err on the side of the histrionic (the last thing you want) , although some, such as Tim Piggot-Smith or Timothy West hit absolutely the right balance,I suppose what we look for is a sort of authenticity of expression: poetry is in the mind but also in the voice.

Two current exemplars of this would be Ian McMillan and John Hegley, but before these were famously the Liverpool Poets, represented tonight by Roger McGough, introducing to his home town his latest publication.

In him we find the best qualities of this kind of presentation: conversational tone, unaffected manner and real clarity, receiving a very warm and enthusiastic response from his own people. As a poet he could be considered essentially a humourist - rather a Hillaire Belloc- with the added ingredient of unexpected and surreal plays on words. However, whatever comparisons one might make, he is one of the great originals who with his fellows set the form which was seen tonight.

This evening McGough drew mainly on his new publication, That Awkward Age - this being any point between birth and death!He began, cleverly, with poems on Health and Safety and mobile phones.We were then treated to poems which addressed the inanimate, ranging from Meccano through bed-time stories, contact lenses, planes and even Macca's trousers.His sometimes surreal and idiosyncratic sideways look at the ordinary everyday encourages the rest of us to view the mundane with new eyes and to find the humour around us. His quirky wit runs throughout, even when in more serious mood, 'I Am Sleeping' for instance.

We revelled in an example of McGough's sense of fun in an anecdote about Carol Ann Duffy. At a party two days after her appointment, McGough announced that The Queen had died - pure mischief. A further nod in the direction of Duffy is his selection of 'husband 'poems including Mr Nightingale, Mr Of Arc and Mr Mae West, a refernce to Duffy's The World's Wife' about the wives of famous men.

There is a contemplative note in 'A Fine Romance', which reflects on a possible future in which Alzheimer's transforms the loved into strangers.One's inevitable demise also appears in 'Payback Time' The humour is back, this is one for my kids to read!

In a way this evening was a reviwers nightmare - how could one jot down even one word during the programme, and risk missing any delicious piece of subtlety and wit. The Liverpool audience have held McGough in esteem since Scaffold days and demonstrated it in their response tonight. This was a memorable evening and if he was back tomorrow, we'd all be there.

Photo:Peter Everard Smith

Reviewed Friday 20th Nov at The Liverpool Playhouse for more info on Roger click here

Do Nothing - Simon Amstell (Tour) - Richmond

Do Nothing by Simon Amstell
Reviewer: James Higgins

Simon Amstell is a man with two sinks. Sitting alongside one another in his nice new bathroom, in his nice new flat, they serve only to remind him of his loneliness he says, until he found a use for both: "I now brush my teeth in the left hand one and in the right hand one I mainly cry"

The journey into Do Nothing has begun and is a universe away from Channel 4's Popworld and the entertainment TV that have been Simon's staple diet over the last few years. The ex host of acclaimed music quiz Never Mind the Buzzcocks quit the show back in April in a bid to concentrate on live tours and performances. The Simon Anstell creature that emerges during the course of his new act is very different to the brash TV persona he conveys that puts unwary celebs on the back foot. Do Nothing is very introspective and allows us to peer closer into his actual self. He tells how he is single and attracted to thin unhealthy looking types.

Just ten minutes into his set he begins to venture into religious territory and jokes that in fact Jesus may well have been just his type when a huge shout went up from the back of the room: "How dare you !" a lady cried. The audience gasped and performer froze. Suddenly the lights went up and it emerged an audience member had objected to being told to shut up and threw a drink at a fellow audience member. They took their differences outside. Could anyone remember where we were ? "Helicopters" shouted someone. "Religion" shouted another. Simon pauses looking suitably confused. "You would expect that in Southend, at Jimmy Carr but this is Richmond, Surrey" he jokes and so on with the show.

A picture of an somewhat awkward uneasiness emerges with relationships, family and with fame. We hear how his straight best mate helps him join a strangers picnic with a view to a pick up in the park as he lacks the confidence to chat up someone he likes, how he meets an older female fan who leaves him alone with her posh son he fancies who he accepts like a present,

his strained relations with some family members, how he mooned his Grandmother when aged 15 in order to try to break the cycle of constant approval. "Let us for the purpose of this story imagine I was just 11 at the time" he says in an attempt to seek our forgiveness. Recalling how his brother's girlfriend is not welcome at a family party as she isn't Jewish he says "We mustn't judge them - its just because they have a strong belief in racism." The nature of the show's title comes from the fact that would shouldn't try to change people that we know but instead "do nothing", this seems at odds to when he tells us to act spontaneously because after all, we are all going to die so we should live in the moment, something he finds of great difficulty as he likes to over analyse everything and sometimes he imagines he is doing something not completely in the present as it is "for the memory"

Simon Amstell is very funny but could and should be funnier still. If he could only realise he is already accepted warmly despite his protestations that make him sound like an awkward teen. He comes across as very eloquent and tells his stories with great effect. He isn't shouty comic who delivers big one liners but does swear and raise his voice when he feels the need to help emphasise a point. He will with time continue to improve of that I am certain. Ten minutes into Do Nothing he was stopped in his tracks and he said he hoped we didn't solely remember the night because of a scuffle in the stalls. He need not of worried judging by the gurgles, giggles and guffaws that followed. Make sure you grab a ticket.

on Nationwide tour until 17th November 2009 - click here for more info

Lucy Porter & Jarred Christmas (2007 Edinburgh preview) - Kings Head Islington

Lucy Porter & Jarred Christmas - with Padraig Hyland

Electric Mouse Comedy Club

The Kings Head Theatre
Reviewed by: Sarah Brown

Sunday night at the Kings Head saw the kind of crowd every comedian must dream of. A host of 20 and 30 something Islingtonians, pleasantly tipsy and determined to have a good time. It was, hence, some achievement on the part of MC James Mullinger that the only laughs he drew from this affable group were nervous ones. However, being a positive kind of person I’ll dwell on the other three acts who were GREAT.

First was the honey-voiced Padraig Hyland, who presented his charming, conversational act as if he was talking to a mate in the pub. Bemoaning the terrible weather, his opening gambit was ‘Make some noise if you’re a sun worshipper’, when this drew the inevitable roar, he stated, after a suitably dramatic pause, ‘I’m a Catholic meself’. Hyland didn’t talk about anything spectacular, but his tale of his flat with no furniture (‘The contract said unfurnished and I’m not one to break the rules’) ensured that by the end of the set he really was talking to his mates in the pub.

Kiwi Jarred Christmas was next up, resplendent in massive sideburns and a bright red shirt. Jarred’s (I can’t bring myself to call him Chrismas) self deprecatory style and the playing of the foreigner card was an instant hit. ‘Superdrug,’ he said, ‘What a disappointment that turned out to be’. His enthusiasm was such that the audience were soon cheering him on. He also played to the female contingent with his line ‘No man wants a woman who’s so thin she can shop in Gap for Kids. I want a woman who eats cheeseburgers and can stick up for me in a fight.’ Go Jarred!

And last but not least, the hilarious Lucy Porter. The kind of girl you could go out and drink Pinot Grigio with. Her wide-eyed innocent look meant she got away with saying things that would seem vulgar from anyone else, but from her just sounded a bit naughty. A room full of North Londoners (and one unfortunate from Elephant and Castle) applauded her praise for the ‘posh’ north. She overheard two white lads in hoodies speaking ‘Jafakin’, one saying, ‘Sebastian, he my bred’rin but he’s well out of order cos I caught him smokin’ my weed in the conservatory’.

Porter’s stream of consciousness act meandered from one subject to another without her even seeming to pause for breath. Her description of the humiliation of having a spray tan (and being asked to lift her buttocks by the 18-year-old beautician) had the audience weeping with laughter as did the tale of her exit from the beauty salon. ‘A tramp shouted at me ‘Paki’ and I know it’s awful but I thought, that’s 20 quid well spent.’ Time prevented her from finishing her quiz on ‘love and hate’ but she promised to continue it in the bar. Bet she did as well. Lucy was trailing the show she's taking to the Edinburgh Festival so anyone heading north should definitely put the date in their diaries. Lucy's matey banter with the audience should go down a storm. Check her out for a evening of friendliness, laughter and positive thinking!

The Electric Mouse Comedy Club runs once a month on a sunday at the Kings Head http://www.kingsheadtheatre.org, The Electric Mouse Comedy Club also runs similar nights up and down the country visit http://www.electricmousecomedy.com for more information