Frankie Boyle review - SkinnyFest
| 14 Aug 2006
There's all this talk about gay marriage, announces Frankie Boyle in a tone of affected informality. "I don't know what all the fuss is about. I'd have loved a gay dad. You know, the kids in the playground: 'My dad's gonna batter your dad.' 'Oh yeah? Well, my dad's gonna shag your dad! And your dad's gonna like it!'" Cue fits of laughter from a partially inebriated audience.
All very droll, of course, but the problem is that that joke, like many others he tells, is far from new. Anybody who's seen Mock The Week, the BBC2 panel show on which Boyle is a regular fixture, will have heard the same joke, recited in a spookily similar tone of affected informality, several months ago. Also, he uses just 45 of his allotted 55 minutes. Which begs the question: why should anybody fork out £11.50 to see Frankie Boyle?
The answer, as anybody in the audience could have told you, is that Boyle is still criminally funny. For every joke you've heard there's a couple you haven't, and Boyle seems to have a knack for eking comedy from the most unpromising of foundations. It's just a shame Boyle shows such disinterest and is really just reeling off his repertoire. The impression given is that he's simply paying the bills until he can flutter gratefully back into the open arms of BBC2. Edinburgh deserves better.
All very droll, of course, but the problem is that that joke, like many others he tells, is far from new. Anybody who's seen Mock The Week, the BBC2 panel show on which Boyle is a regular fixture, will have heard the same joke, recited in a spookily similar tone of affected informality, several months ago. Also, he uses just 45 of his allotted 55 minutes. Which begs the question: why should anybody fork out £11.50 to see Frankie Boyle?
The answer, as anybody in the audience could have told you, is that Boyle is still criminally funny. For every joke you've heard there's a couple you haven't, and Boyle seems to have a knack for eking comedy from the most unpromising of foundations. It's just a shame Boyle shows such disinterest and is really just reeling off his repertoire. The impression given is that he's simply paying the bills until he can flutter gratefully back into the open arms of BBC2. Edinburgh deserves better.
Frankie Boyle - The Voice of Black America, Pleasance Courtyard, until August 27 (not 21), 21:00, £11.50/£10.50 (£10/£9).