Jeremy Hardy @ EIBF

 

Former Perrier Comedy award winner, and Radio 4 stalwart Jeremy Hardy attracted a large audience for this event, in aid of promoting his new book where he traces his family history. As a comedian, Hardy is obviously used to public speaking, and he chatted amiably away with host Ruth Wishart (who got in a few jokes of her own) before reading a few sections of his book. The comedic diversions took up considerably more time than the subject at hand, with a strangely accurate impression of the veteran Scottish comedian Arnold Brown (who was in the audience) being an odd highlight. Hardy’s readings were broken up with jokes he seemed to come up with on the spot, and the event shed some revealing light on his comedic style – when one joke didn’t raise a laugh, several followed in quick succession. In this way he kept the crowd more than happy, and the question and answer session that concluded the session was very popular. One question was indecipherable, but Hardy handled it with ease (“I’m glad you asked that”, he said, to laughter) while managing to come up with some kind of answer. A very pleasant hour then, although it lacked the kind of bite that Hardy is capable of. [Keir Hind]