Tony Law: Force of personality makes for brilliant results
The first night of a new comedy club starting up in Birmingham, this was an interesting experiment – two headline acts playing two shows at two separate venues in Birmingham, one at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath and the other at The Proverbial in Harborne. On the basis of the fantastic turnout at the Hare & Hounds this could prove to be a very popular night for audiences and acts alike.
Nevertheless, it took a long time for this audience to get warmed up – they were polite and attentive, but compere James Cook had to work hard for big laughs due to no small amount of reticence on the audience’s part. Clearly not fazed by this, Cook showed why he is among Birmingham’s best stand-ups with a raft of tightly-honed gags and some deft audience participation, finding humour even when those being quizzed weren’t as co-operative as he might be used to.
The first act on was Brian Damage and Krysstal, a cabaret-style duo who launched into a post-modern take on the kind of old-school club acts parodied so acutely on Phoenix Nights. With Damage leading from the front and swiftly moving between musical numbers, there were some great lines woven into songs and banter, but most of the laughs came from the dynamic between Damage and his kooky, uninterested assistant Krysstal.
The serial misunderstandings written into the rather awkward rapport between the two were at the heart of what worked best during their set. At times a few jokes were a little too innocuous – some wilfully out of date references to “youth culture” were mildly amusing but detracted from the more interesting elements of their comedy. But on the whole, theirs was a refreshingly strange take on the musical comedy double act.
The word ‘unique’ is applied far too often to comedians who are anything but. Tony Law, on the other hand, is deserving of that label – his is a comic mind totally unlike others, and this set mixed prepared material with the infectious bursts of free-form riffing which are a Law trademark.
Undercutting himself at every turn, Law gave an almost running commentary on his routines, breaking the fourth wall and letting the audience in on the mechanics of his act. It’s not an uncommon trick, but rarely is it delivered with such humour or inventiveness. The surrealist Canadian performer was also adept at subverting and twisting stand-up conventions into new and interesting shapes, generating jokes from this deconstructionist approach.
If his flights of fancy sometimes veered towards being indulgent, they were saved thanks to what is perhaps Law’s greatest strength – much of his material is inspired already but he succeeded in winning over the audience and keeping them engaged largely through sheer force of personality. There’s an ebullient, high-octane feel to his performance which works to his advantage. A genuinely exciting stand-up, this was a thrilling performance from a comic blending intelligence and weirdness to fantastic effect.
You can see more from Tony Law on his DVD available from the brilliant folks at Go Faster Stripe. It smells of strawberries!
The next shows at The Hare & Hounds and The Proverbial feature Andrew O’Neill and more. Tickets are £5 in advance or £7 on the door (£5 with free membership).