:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Monday, February 10, 2003 ::

I went, with Kieron, to see Robert Newman (of Newman & Baddiel / Mary Whitehouse Experience fame) doing his new stand up show, the mildly politically titled “From Caliban to the Taliban - 500 Years of Humanitarian Intervention”, at the Comedy Box in Bedminster on Saturday night. An interesting choice of venue, he sold out two nights of about 200 seats, which makes for a much more intimate experience that at larger venues. This is something comedians are much better at doing than most musicians, forget all these old metalers or pop bands touring around blagging how busy they are, I don’t think any of them work as hard as most stand ups.

The show did manage to pull of being highly political and still funny, although no where near as well as Mark Thomas does it. It was interesting to hear his version of the story about how he and MT got arrested and “de-arrested” at the Whitehall protest last year. (RN claimed only to have been arrested twice during the day whilst MT claimed six or seven arrests!) He did do some very good material about the twin towers incident (“I forget the date”), and how all those film industry bosses had that big meeting at “the quad – formerly the pentagon” to discuss what other ideas have been presented in films that terrorists may use; “Terrorists are likely planning to develop a Dolorian car, powered by lightning hitting a clock tower, to travel back in time...”. Most of the rest of the show then talks about how history could be changed to prevent the spread of globalisation and it generally gets a bit date heavy and over detailed.

Other high points (paraphrased): “The US is determined to stop Saddam developing weapons of mass destruction which may one day be used against the US. They are also looking for a waitress by the name of Sarah Connor who may give birth to one John Connor who...etc.”

The low point was probably the, er, big ending. This was a rap, based on a CIA pamphlet, describing how people should go about trying to over throw an evil regime. As Kieron pointed out; “People with no natural rhythm should NOT rap.”

Overhead conversation:
Miserable looking fuck who never seemed to smile: “It’s a bit too political for me this.”
His slightly happier looking friend: “Yeah?”
MLFWNSTS: “It’s like that guy on Channel 4, too much politics for me.”
HSHLF: “What, Mark Thomas?”
MLFWNSTS: “No, no, the other one, um what’s his name, er, Rory Bremner, that’s it.”
HSHLF, me and everyone else in earshot: “?????????”

You van find me dates for the tour and other Rob Newman info here.

:: Dan 10.2.03 [Arc]    ::
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