Review: Rich Hall’s Hoedown

Rich Hall, with his inimitable self-deflationary drawl, terms himself ‘the warm-up act’ during the first half of his show, the solo stand-up part that precedes the ‘hoedown’ when his band takes the stage for some shit-pickin’ country and western tunes.

But this is no warm-up act: it’s the real deal. The growly grouch (‘I come from Montana where it’s legal to marry a gun’) who introduces himself from offstage in his disembodied voice beforehand, launches into targets such as the US Presidential race and American gun laws while targeting front-row punters with a deprecatingly hilarious warmth.

So while Trump gets it with both barrels (Hall thinks he has no chance of getting the Presidency as the voting date falls in the ‘hunting season’, which will tie up most of his voters – and because most of his voters are probably banned from going within a 40-mile radius of the schools where the voting takes place anyway) and duck hunting with an AK47 is also lampooned (‘I’d just take a loaf of bread instead and see who gets more ducks…’) John, a tattooed ambulance driver, software man Steve, building inspector Dave and a scientist couple get gently but mercilessly chided to our delight throughout.

Some seriously skilful dovetailing takes place as Hall, Stetsoned and with the endearingly crumpled expression of his Simpsons barman character Moe, strolls around his topics effortlessly and with the clever one-liners and brilliantly original and side-splittingly observational sharpness that make him such a one-off.

The catastrophic events in Syria are explained via an analogy about Glastonbury music fans invading London and fighting over multi-factional musical differences, sitting alongside a brilliant monologue on single-food shopping in a supermarket and a scare he had when he couldn’t wink and thought he had Bell’s palsy. The relationship status of his front-row victims meanwhile are never far away – ‘time to swap the spreadsheet for the bedsheet’ is the advice Steve the software man gets.

This continues in the second half when Hall’s incredible lyrical dexterity comes to the fore, backed by the Hoedown band and his off-the-cuff country songs about the front-rowers: thus we get a song about ‘Steve who fixes the porn’, another about John who courts his girlfriend in a Wetherspoons, turning into a general critique of the pub chain, and a great ramble about David the building inspector who ‘really should have been a cowboy…’

Alongside these instant gems is a UK trucking song, My Eritrean Trucking Buddy – a comment on the refugee situation, with its chorus ‘It’s a fucked up world’; another one involving John the ambulance driver singing the chorus ‘fur on a stick’ about a greyhound realising he’s been chasing a fake rabbit all these years, and a very funny Bob Dylan parody.

Incisively and grittily amusing and musically entertaining, this Hoedown sho’ got some kick…!

Rich Hall’s Hoedown continues at Tobacco Factory Theatres until Thursday, Sept 8. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/whats-on

Pic: Roddy Hand