list.co.uk/comedy Previews | COMEDY
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SATIRE ANDY ZALTZMAN The Stand, Edinburgh, Sun 14 May; The Stand, Glasgow, Mon 15 May MY COMEDY HERO KATY BRAND The Stand, Glasgow, Sun 21 May
Andy Zaltzman has been a comedy partner of John Oliver, once supported Joan Rivers, and is renowned as a wry political commentator. His work has amused the nation on live stages as well as through his popular podcast, The Bugle, which he claims is ‘premium-calibre satirical hogwash’. The world needs political humourists more than ever before and with his Plan Z, he is prepared to put his neck on the line and tell us about the crucial issues. Such as Trump’s golf form. ‘Trump will not last until 2020 as President,’ Zaltzman announces. ‘At his current rate of practice, his golf should have improved to the level where he can join the USPGA tour as a solid professional, ranked around 80th–120th in the world. Also, having small hands, Trump is terrified of ghosts. The enraged spectres of Washington, Roosevelt and Abe “The Hat” Lincoln, must surely be plotting some big-league haunting of Trump.’
I got into comedy in my late teens and started to self-consciously look for role models on TV and Caroline Aherne was on there a lot then. She wasn’t doing straight-forward observations about ‘what it’s like to be a woman’; she would do these fully-formed characters who were proper people, very specific and very funny. For me, Denise Royle was her finest creation; it could so easily have been done over the top, but it’s so perfectly observed and underplayed. Everyone in their right mind would have Victoria Wood among their comedy heroes. I met her a couple of times and she was quietly supportive; there was something very dignified about her. She booked me for a live benefit show and I didn’t realise until later that she had handpicked the line-up. She made it clear to me that I was there because she wanted me to be there. I was walking on air for a month after that.
Making his way to Scotland, it will be nigh well impossible for him to ignore The final one is maybe pretentious, but I have always found Gilbert & George
mentioning the proposed IndyRef2. As per, Zaltzman has an off-kilter standpoint as he wonders what might happen should Scots vote yes. ‘Catalonia might use the opportunity to join the UK in a swap deal, with Scotland going the other way and hooking up with Spain. I can also see New Zealand then leaving the Southern Hemisphere. It’s earned a crack at seeing what it can do on this side of the equator.’ (Brian Donaldson) ■ Read a full Andy Zaltzman q&a at list.co.uk/comedy very funny. I remember them on a Jonathan Ross chat show, talking very earnestly about one of them creating a diversion in the newsagent’s so the other one could steal a Kit Kat. When you do comedy on TV and radio, you are used to working to a brief and having loads of notes that you need to act on even if you don’t agree with them. Gilbert & George are very much their own men. (As told to Brian Donaldson) ■ Read more about Katy Brand’s comedy heroes at list.co.uk/comedy
STAND-UP REGINALD D HUNTER Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, Wed 17 May; Albert Halls, Stirling, Thu 18 May
American comedians are in something of a bind right now. How do they tackle the calamity that has recently befallen their nation while actually having something new to say about the matter? While folk on the other side of the pond are dealing with cuts to everything from the arts to environmental safeguards while chatter about building that wall keeps on running, how can a stand-up deliver killer Trump routines when the orange man himself continues to be laugh-out-loud unfunny? The latest US comic to wrestle with this problem is the UK-
based Georgian, Reginald D Hunter. ‘My new show was mostly written last autumn,’ he recalls. ‘Then Trump got elected and I had to rewrite it very quickly. I spent the whole of 2016 repeatedly telling people that Trump was not going to win. I’m amazed they still let me do comedy.’
For his new touring show, Some People v. Reginald D
Hunter, the comedian will be tackling subjects such as family, relationships and the OJ Simpson case. ‘It was the pivotal moment in race relations in America and is still sending shockwaves through the country today,’ Hunter says of the notorious 1995 murder trial, the recent TV dramatisation of which has given him his new show title.
With race firmly back on the agenda in the US (as well as across Europe), Hunter has taken to addressing it in the only way he knows how: by baiting bigots. ‘I’ve been challenging the views of white American racists on Twitter and it has not been as upsetting for me as it has been for them. All you have to do to win is keep cool and state the facts: they hate that. It’s like holy water to a vampire. I figure if I can really argue my position with someone who despises the fact that I exist, then some of the places I’m visiting on this tour should be a piece of cake.’ (Brian Donaldson)
1 Apr–31 May 2017 THE LIST 69
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