Richard Brown @ The Coffee House
Minimal effort lets down a comedian that has a lot more to give
You Are Not My Audience is a fitting title for a show by a comedian who seems oddly confused about what he’s doing on stage. It’s like Richard Brown forgot the level of work required to deliver an hour’s material and he’s not prepared.
Brown is someone you want to like – a down-to-earth, salty Scotsman with a big grin and a ‘don’t-give-a-fuck’ attitude. But the fact that he only did two previews of his show before coming to Edinburgh, and he’s happy to admit it, suggests a complacency that is difficult to get onboard with. He keeps looking at his notes throughout, which wouldn’t be so bad had it not emphasised the general feeling of him being out of control from beginning to end. He skips past a bit about New Zealand that he was told was factually incorrect in a previous show. He milks obvious topics like Tories and gun-loving Americans for cheap gags, but there’s no substance or anything resembling a narrative.
The most peculiar thing about the show is how Brown over-explains everything. Why he loves dark jokes, the backstory of said jokes and how some of them made it into the show. If there's a level of irony to this it doesn't come across. He even takes the opportunity to clear up what he really meant by the answer to an interview question that caused a backlash against him on Twitter. None of it makes sense and it’s a disappointing effort from someone who can clearly do better.
Richard Brown: You Are Not My Audience, The Coffee House, 2-26 Aug (not 13), 7:30pm, Free
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