Tony Law: Maximum Noonsense

The braces, the boots, the trousers, the hair, the voice – Canadian Tony Law is a daunting presence on the tiny stage of The Stand 1. Ignoring a lunchtime timeslot, no posters, and a month-long preview ticket price, he launches enthusiastically into “banter” before giving the crowd a European history lesson and pointing out mass murderers in his audience.

Law’s style takes no prisoners. The term “surreal” doesn’t give him nearly enough credit for the wild inventiveness of routines that veer violently between playing with language to a steelpan-based routine that absolutely destroyed this reviewer. Discussing the deadly art of “vikrate” before dissecting the drug trade in Trinidad & Tobago, Law’s brain switches from the sublime to the ridiculous to the insane – while sometimes he doesn’t appear to understand where his mind decides to go next, the process of catch up is incredible to watch, equally bewildering to follow but always incredibly rewarding.

One joke slowly expands and morphs into an elephant-based character piece featuring accents Law isn’t qualified to perform, leading to a finale you couldn’t begin to make up. Five huge mental stars well earned.