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Bruce Dessau's rating
Stand up for Burns' night
By
Bruce Dessau
8 Oct 2007
The Edinburgh Festival seems a world away, but it was transplanted to London with a vengeance last night for the first of three if.comedy Awards showcases.
The Perrier Award might be down the plughole, but with great gigs like these, new sponsors Intelligent Finance can laugh all the way to the bank.
First was Andrew Lawrence, equal parts Charlie Drake and Johnny Rotten. His dark monologue was a masterclass in hardcore misanthropy, explaining how to lose friends and alienate people, pouring scorn on everyone from "web-fingered" toffs to scroungers with "bits of scratchcard between their teeth". Repulsive yet compulsive.
But this was if.comedy winner Brendon Burns's night. After 16 years at stand-up's coalface the aggressive Aussie has struck gold with this playful, thought-provoking set. It is a ferocious no-holds-barred rant that goes to familiar places and puts a dramatic new spin on them.
The theme is the nature of feeling, with Burns delivering tart gags about reality TV, terrorism, race, religion and political correctness in a bark that would make lesser mortals hoarse in minutes. Not just a loud hour, also a must-see one, revealing that comedy, like life, is never black and white.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (3)
I've come to expect stand-up comedians to be a mixed bag, but not usually within a single routine. I admired much of the theme that underlay the material - a sarcastic (and not entirely original) take on human perception and hypocrisy - but found the delivery to be largely uninteresting. Shouting and swearing at the audience can be very funny, when used as occasional punctuation to a well-developed gag, but quickly becomes unfunny when over-used.
Brendan Burns' material is clearly thought-out, and in parts quite brave, but I was very disappointed in the act as a whole. Maybe he was celebrating his award on Sunday night with a bit of public self-indulgence, but I wish someone had warned me so I could have stayed at home.
- Mike, London, UK, 09/10/2007 10:58
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I thought Brendan Burns was original and great giving a big show with a twist. A very worthy IF winner - I thoroughly agree with Bruce’s review.
Andrew Lawrence’s set was original with a good pre-emptive strike at Brendan too. A good night out you don’t need to be brave you need to be willing.
- Bill, London, UK, 08/10/2007 18:59
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Brendan Burns is an original, if only because you've probably never seen a show that combines ancient gags about Russell Brand with blandly obvious statements about the UK attitude towards radical Islam (the nation is generally not keen to be violently converted, it gets a little upset when its routine is disturbed by transport-related attacks) and recycled chick-lit material (pretty girls get their own way).
Burns attempts to compensate for his material's lack of insight with a hyperactive delivery style, involving much frantic leaping, odd puppet-like leg jerking and an awful lot of inner-ear destroying howling. Although a large number of his audience were considerably drunk (I wish I had thought of that) he was keen to convey that he was high on good ol' life, in that 'being sober is the greatest high of all' evangelical style that can be so tiring in some recovering addicts.
Comedians who educate through comedy can be fine. Much of what I knew about adoption processes I learnt from Jeremy Hardy's stand-up. But Burns seems to believe his audience don't read the news and couldn't interpret it anyway - thank God clever Brendan will tell us what to think! He also firmly denounces reality TV - strange, then, that he used Saturday's Independent to ask for a Hell's Kitchen gig.
If you're brave enough to see this show, I would recommend you divert your courage into something more worthy and of use to society, such as, perhaps, standing in the middle lane of the M25.
- Johanna, London, UK, 08/10/2007 15:52
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