Rich
Hall
Giggling
Guiri, Barcelona International Comedy Festival
C.A.T.
Tradicionarus, Barcelona
It was my first Giggling Guiri event but apparently
their last. A nameless man wearing a hat opened the evening appearing on the
stage to tell us how it had all been a bit of a struggle over the years and so
he was moving to Brazil. I’m sure the first act waiting nervously backstage
would have thanked him for this decidedly chilly warm-up.
The first act was Josep, a Catalan who
had triumphed the previous night in the Barcelona International Comedy Festival
Find a Funny Person Event and hence won the prize of being the first act.
Comedy has got tough since I tried it all those years ago. To get an open mike
spot then you just had to pester the promoter, wait around until he was
satisfied he’d made you wait enough to convince you he was important and agree
with him that he was a philanthropic genius bringing the balm of laughter to
the toiling masses – now you have to actually achieve something.
Anyway, easily overcoming his intro, Josep
began in an agreeably bumbling fashion and had the audience with him from the
start. His self-deprecatory persona contrasted strongly with his content which
was mainly a stream of unpleasant images and really not very good at all. But
his excellent timing allowed him to get away with ten minutes of saying
repulsive rather than funny stuff without the audience twigging. If he ever wants
to do more than this time slot though he’s going to have to have better
material.
Next up was Martin Lagos a young Swedish
comic brimful of cocky confidence. He was also brimful of lazy stereotypes – we
got workshy Latinos, mean Scots, ugly women from the North East of England,
video game playing Japanese and trailer park inhabiting Americans (and those
were pretty much the punchlines). But he was so convinced he was funny that he
managed to fool just enough of the audience for twenty whole minutes. He wasn’t
though.
Finally, out came the nameless man in the
hat – you may have guessed I have an irrational prejudice against the
unnecessary indoor wearing of hats – it one of those things that people do to
make themselves seem quirky and interesting when they’re not. But I am aware
that, in the greater scheme of things, it’s a fairly inoffensive practice and the
amount it irritates me is grossly disproportionate to the amount of harm it
causes – I’m working on it.
Rich Hall was the “Comedy Hero” in
question. He remarked halfway through his set that when his act is reviewed
really all that happens is the writer reviews his face so that’s where I’ll
start. Rich Hall’s ageing pugnacious face suggests a man who has observed the
world with a baleful eye seen everything go wrong that possibly could go wrong
and now expects it to get worse. With his trademark staccato growl he delivers
an hour and a half of perfectly pitched amiable anger and engaging resignation
about the depths of human stupidity.
He starts with the economic crash, throws
in a good deal of America bashing, adds a few barbs at England and finishes it
off with some effortless criticism of the front row who are, of course,
delighted to be insulted. There’s nothing dangerous or challenging about his
act and he could be accused of pandering too easily to the prejudices of his
liberal audience – his only misstep came when he pronounces Obama “a good
president in a bad country” – nobody is buying that line anymore – but otherwise
he lets us laugh at others (Germany, Sarah Palin, the people of Whitehaven) and
feel good about ourselves. If that sounds like a complaint I should make it
clear that it is pretty much entirely mitigated by the brilliance of his
performance. It is rare to see a comedian as completely in command of the stage
as Hall. His observations are always sharp and intelligent (his targets may be
easy ones but his creativity in dispatching them is inspired) and his outraged
despair at human folly eventually magically transforms into being close to a
celebration of precisely this dumbness (this is the exactly the same trick The
Simpsons pulls off). You leave despairing at the world and feeling surprisingly
good about it. An excellent show.
