JAMES ACASTER: REPRESENT | COMEDY REVIEW
Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
Tue 27 Oct
James Acaster has been nominated for an Edinburgh comedy award in each of the past four years. Quite how he hasn’t yet managed to scoop the much-coveted gong is anyone’s guess, as each new show he produces is as good as or better than the last.
Whereas his previous show centred around Acaster being an undercover cop, this time he talks us through the rigours of jury duty, thus once again placing himself in a position of authority and responsibility which he expertly manages to weave into hilarious storytelling.
The central theme of the show is not important; it’s purely a vehicle for him to pick apart tiny details of what would normally be considered mundane events. He’s an expert in minutiae, and delightfully puts a fresh yet obvious spin on things such as Secret Santa or sayings as widely-spoken as “that’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back”.
This focus on minor details creates splendid tangents, yet somehow Acaster simultaneously manages to stick to the carefully assembled narrative without straying off course. In fact, some of the best parts of the show involved verbally shaming a clearly worse-for-wear punter in the front row, yet at no point did he allow this to become a distraction.
What he manages to do more than anything is to dress up very good observational comedy as something better than that; this is a terribly clever hour of material that’s delivered with the panache and confidence of someone who obviously knows how good he is. What separates him from very good stand-ups is his use of silence, a thing normally feared by comics but completely embraced by Acaster. There’s parts of this latest set where he waits for the audience, staring at us, almost goading us to feel awkward, but we never do because he’s completely in control.
It’s this arrogance which, combined with terrific gag-writing, is his main weapon: his demeanour is in direct contrast to his appearance. He performs like a master, but he looks like an underdog.
Whether this is conscious or not scarcely matters, because it works.
words ROB HARRIES
