Comedy / andy robinson
Review: Gary Delaney/Andy Robinson
“You look like a big strong man – as strong as a paedophile’s password.” And with his opening gag, Gary Delaney has shown that he’s not a comedian for the easily shocked.
His support act, Andy Robinson, is very much a comedian for the easily amused. He claims that he doesn’t mind doing jokes that don’t work, “because it means other comedians won’t steal them”. His vanilla material is probably pretty safe then. Whilst he scored a few hits once he realised that an audience who had come for Gary Delaney could probably handle some edgier gags, he’s not likely to be headlining any shows.
Delaney (a familiar face from Mock the Week), on the other hand, is headlining – and playing to packed houses. His act consists principally of one-liners, often tripping merrily over the boundaries of good taste. He’s been described as “the comedian Jimmy Carr would like to be”, and his material is certainly top class: one-line gags that often trigger a wave of laughter after a slight pause as the audience piece together the pun or the twist. It’s comedy for people who like their humour challenging, both mentally and in terms of subject matter. And yet …
is needed now More than ever
The problem lies in Delaney’s delivery. A comedian who laughs – or in Delaney’s case manically giggles – at his own jokes is distracting enough. But Delaney goes further, throwing away many of his punchlines and rushing straight on to a post-match analysis of how that particular joke went, how it worked and why it worked. There’s lots of insight into the working of the gag writer here – but it’s sadly at the expense of the gags.
When he gets a good run going, and fires out joke after joke, the momentum builds and so does the laughter. But all too often the halting, stop/start delivery and meandering asides detract from the quality of the material, turning the prime-grade jokes into pearls scattered like acorns.
Delaney may well have better material than Jimmy Carr. But he currently lacks Carr’s mannered, quickfire delivery to ensure that every one of those jokes hits home. And yet there’s a lot to be said for a comedian who comes up with “I had lunch in a pub today. There was a sign on the wall saying ‘The Chef’s Special’. Well, that explains the food.”
Gary Delaney and Andy Robinson played The Lantern on Tuesday, May 24. For more Lantern/Colston Hall comedy lineups, visit www.colstonhall.org/whats-on/comedy
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