Review of Tony Law: Maximum Nonsense

"Fantasically funny: Festival Must See" by Jamie Firth for remotegoat on 16/08/12

First up, a confession: I don't like watching comedy sober. Come to think of it, I don't much like doing anything sober. But whereas I'm willing to make reluctant concessions for things like "driving" and "surgery", I really see no reason why I should do without a boozy crutch when watching comedy: it's a laughter lubricant.

So then to Edinburgh where I generally, for that very reason, prefer theatre in the day and comedy at night. However, I'm watching Tony Law's show "Maximum Nonsense" at 12:30pm in The Stand, a venue a little off the main thoroughfare, and going against all my better judgment. I'm doing this because of a growing swell of word-of-mouth support, mostly from his fellow professionals including some of my favourites (Stewart Lee listed it as one of his top recommendations for the festival). If anything can get me over my fear of pre-yardarm chuckles, then this has a good a shot as any.

It's hard to explain how he so easily puts his audience into his pocket in such a short space of time. But he does. 15 minutes in I am sold in all kinds of ways, and he's just getting started: the entire room seems to be the same (even those who were moaning earlier about having to stand… FESTIVAL NB: maybe not walking in about 20 seconds before the advertised start time is the way forwards there guys? Hmm?). This is just brilliantly funny stuff.

His diverse background provides much of the backbone of the show: Law was born in Trinidad and Tobago and then spent his formative years in Canada (apparently on a pig farm), before he moved to England around 20 years ago. It has left Law with a rather jarring cornucopia of different accents, which he drifts between during his set. In general it settles between Canadian and an aristocratic Brit: I really hate it when people attempt to succinctly pigeon-hole acts, but when I hit on "It's like Rick Mayall's Lord Flashheart, but played by Will Ferrell", I was so pleased with it that to not include it in the review would be cheating myself out of an incredibly smug moment. And I just couldn't bear that.
It doesn't help YOU any, but it makes me feel pretty awesome. If you're still reading, then thanks for indulging me.

Much of his material in this show revolves around his jealousy of other comedians with skills he claims not to have. For example, he admires their ability to structure a show, whereas he confesses his is "somewhat clunky" (although abstract at points, it certainly never feels that way). He admires one-liner merchants ("But I'm not clever enough to do those") and then delivers some killer one-liners. He admires musical comedians, wishing he had that talent, before delivering a searingly brilliant routine and a grandstand musical finale…

There are lots of comedians around with skills, but a great number less who have skills and the craft to use them so effectively. Tony Law has it in abundance.

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