COMEDY IS wonderfully subjective.
You don’t like this comic? Try that one. The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same thing.
I love Charlie Chuck, others think he’s a deranged loon who shouldn’t be allowed out in public.
Millions love Michael McIntyre. But he’s my second-favourite comedian. “Second after who, Aldo?” I hear you ask. Well, everyone else.
Until now. I think I’ve found my kryptonite comedian.
I didn’t like a single thing about Phil’s act, or his show.
Sorry, that’s not entirely true. Let’s deal with Aren’t We Lucky first. When he slipped into the occasional impression of his 97-year-old mum from Glasgow, I instantly recognised that exact sort of wee Scottish old lady and how she spoke.
Heck, I’m related to pure hunnerts of them.
If Phil had stayed in that character, I’d have had an enjoyable enough hour. Instead, he quickly demonstrated that he’s not my cup of comedic tea.
A Canadian son of Scottish parents, his delivery is very much in the high-octane, over-caffeinated North American style. Think Sam Kinison or Robin Williams after a six-pack of Red Bull.
It was breathless and loud, punctuated by OTT sound effects from Phil himself (one in particular that sounded like a stereotypical Native American war cry was deployed endlessly during both shows and has given me PTSD.)
Some gags either didn’t land or, to me at least, didn’t make sense, and there seemed a lot of unnecessarily crude stuff thrown in for the simple shock factor.
The title, Aren’t We Lucky, was a catchphrase of the late rock god Lou Reed and the idea that we’re lucky to have arrived at this exact point could have been a great concept but it was lost in an overly mawkish finale.
Aren’t we lucky? I didn’t feel lucky in the slightest to have seen this.
Moving onto The Naked Racist, remember I mentioned stereotypes a few paragraphs ago? Well, there was plenty of lazy racial stereotyping here and it was horribly uncomfortable.
This show won Phil the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2006 and he’s revisiting it 20 years on. As Nichol himself said, perhaps sensibilities have moved on but a comedy Asian voice wasn’t funny then and is even less funny now.
Add in some comedy “Oirish” voices and fiddle-de-dee music that the two Irish lads sat along from me just shook their heads at, throw in some sexually questionable material and you have a problem.
The hour was based upon a visit to Amsterdam and I really didn’t care how many drugs he took or what fetish clubs he visited, it just didn’t fit together with what the theme was supposed to be.
The idea that we have somehow normalised violence in the media but made nudity odd and frightening is a good one but it’s no excuse to spend the last 10 minutes of the show naked (hence the title), and when his band rejoined him also, in the words of Half Man Half Biscuit, bollocko, it was just sad.
Halfway through Nichol had stopped and asked a couple if they were all right and if they wanted to leave.
Why couldn’t he have asked me?
Phil Nichol: Aren’t We Lucky is on at the Gilded Balloon – Lounge August 5-30 (not 17). For tickets visit https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/phil-nichol-aren-t-we-lucky
Phil Nichol: The Naked Racist is on at the Gilded Balloon – Wine Bar from August 5-18. For tickets visit https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/phil-nichol-the-naked-racist
