Jon Richardson: This Guy at Night Review

By turns a cleanliness freak, a loner and—this year—a perfectionist whose only happiness comes from a Sky TV subscription and a ruthless determination to submit to convention, Jon Richardson is frank when it comes to how little hope he holds out for himself in life. Ruining every relationship he enters and making ridiculous and unreasonable demands of his loved ones, the comic spends his days traipsing round London filled with an intense hatred for all those who dare to smile or take pleasure in a sunny day in the capital.

The perfect caricature of the British middle class misanthrope, Richardson draws out every snobbish and protocol-obsessed thought his audience has ever felt, burning it into delicious insignificance under the magnifying glass of his own contempt for easy sociability. His pleasant on-stage demeanour—“I know it’s incredibly hot in here so, if you do need to take a breather, just go”—sits at odds with the petty and self-obsessed mind he describes taking him over in the lonely hours of evening; all of which serves to satirise faultlessly the duplicity of the professional gentleman.

Previous year’s reviews have made patronising mention of “comedy friend” and former BBC6 radio co-host Russell Howard to buoy support for the comic. But with This Guy at Night, the vulnerable and endearing Richardson surely breaks out of any shadows and into a limelight of his own. A meticulously arranged deconstruction of a life spent in constant fear of proper etiquette, this must be Richardson’s most proficient offering yet.

Read Rebecca Gordon's review of This Guy at Night