Matt Price: My Girlfriend Was Attacked By A Small-Time Wannabe Gangster and This Is What I Did About It

“It was more stand-up, slash sauna,” was the light-hearted assessment of this show by an upbeat audience member. The temperature of a venue shouldn’t affect the success of a show or influence the judgment of even the most critical reviewer. But Matt Price couldn’t make light of the lethargy-inducing heat with a throwaway gag with his raw, autobiographical and angry material, which is more about pathos and bitter irony than tickling the laughter reflex. Price’s main topic is about how he once performed at Broadmoor in front of Peter Sutcliffe and 60 other criminally insane audience members. He is fascinated by violence, he says, and had something to prove in front of such a hard-bitten, masculine audience. But equally, Price still has something to prove as a comedian, because there are very few laughs here. Whilst many stand-ups use humour to mask their anger and dissatisfaction, Price doesn't seem to have developed that mask much at all. He definitely has some meaningful things to say, but perhaps stand-up is not the ideal medium.