Review: Tony Law: Maximum Nonsense, The Stand Comedy Club (Venue 5a)

By David Pollock
Published on 27/08/2012 15:39

Or, AS the billboard outside the venue has it, “Maximum Noonsense”. “Let’s not forget this is lunchtime,” is the mantra boomed out by Canadian comedian Tony Law in a Burtonesque baritone at every opportunity.

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The voice suggests an unhinged officer demanding his boys go over the top with him one last time, while the look – sandy blond beard and hair, wild eyes, striped top and neckerchief – screams marauding Viking or swashbuckling pirate, as he points out himself. It’s fair to say that Law is a personality comedian, and his singular force-of-nature delivery has the effect of holding his material together where it may be lacking.

Once you overcome the continual amusement of a naturally funny man saying things in a natural and funny way, the Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee’s set is easily broken up into two distinct threads: feverish, genre-distorting excellence and flailing weirdness searching desperately for a point.

When the former emerges it’s a joy to behold, for example an attempt to branch into Minchin-style musical comedy when all he can play are two sad notes on a steel pan, or an in-character conversation with himself about whether he has the experiential right to imitate a black South African just because he likes the accent. The finale is a bravura blend of elephants, singing and nonsense, but too often through the set the latter has been hammered most fiercely.

Until 27 August. Today 12:30pm.