And then there are those comedians who live in their own world rather than everyone else’s.
Simon Munnery has been a cult figure (that dread description) in British comedy for more than 30 years, first in the guise of Alan Parker Urban Warrior and more recently as The League Against Tedium.
These days he’s performing under his own name, all the better, perhaps, to claim ownership of his own peculiar fizzing humour.
Simon Munnery’s Jerusalem is a baggy, compendious beast of a show that pulses with a messy energy, veering between deadpan whimsy and off-the-wall celebrity anecdotes.
At its heart is a spot of poetic criticism. Munnery is fully engaged with the poet William Blake here. We even get a glorious line-by-line breakdown of Blake’s famous poem that gives the show its title.
On top of that there is also a spot of hero worship of the late Mark E Smith, the lead singer of The Fall (and another poet in his own way).
Munnery does a good Mark E Smith impersonation. His Bob Dylan is pretty good too. In the performance I saw Madonna even turns up, but Munnery doesn’t try to recreate her voice, more’s the pity.
To fully enjoy Munnery’s show it does probably help if you share some of his enthusiasms, but there’s a lurching momentum to the whole thing that keeps you engaged.
And he’s funny in both word and action. Which is the point, after all.
Not everyone will get Munnery. You may need to tune into his wavelength through the static. But those who do will find their own reward.
Frankly, it’s difficult to imagine the Fringe without him.
Simon Munnery’s Jerusalem, The Stand Comedy Club (Stand 1) until August 28 (except August 14)
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/simon-munnery-s-jerusalem
