Jerry Sadowitz

If comedy were fashion, ironic post-modern offensiveness would be the big new thing. Much like retro clothing, ironic offensiveness isn't the genuine article, but an interpretation for the modern age. People like Jim Jeffries, Jimmy Carr and Brendon Burns push the boundaries of taste, but never of properness. Their offensiveness is built upon an under-current of tolerance, a foundation of acceptance for all people. Their comedy baits those who are intolerant and is designed to offend the Daily Mail-reading, gay-bashing, bigoted idiots.

Jerry Sadowitz is a Daily Mail-reading, gay-bashing, bigoted idiot. Never are his lines accompanied by a knowingly wry smile or an ironic tone. Rather he spews out tiresome vitriol at a fair rate of knots. His act, while initially funny, quickly descends into dull repetition of the word "fuck" four or five times a sentence. For the first 30 to 40 minutes, there is nothing new, special or interesting about the gig.

That said, there is one moment of true genius right at the end of the set – a vitriolic attack on Derren Brown which sees Sadowitz display on an overhead projector the crudest of "optical illusions." This, and Sadowitz's amazing ability to set a crowd on edge with his sharp-tongued lacerations of the front row, are among the only reasons to bother going.