Comedy review: American Homecoming

Published on Monday 30 March 2009 19:54

*** THE STAND, GLASGOW

AS EUROPE'S biggest comedy festival, Glasgow has much to recommend it, but it lacks the eclectic programming and introduction to exciting new talent of some other UK comedy gatherings.

Fortunately, this annual showcase of American comics unfamiliar with our stand-up circuit invariably introduces a compelling element of risk, as the acts hastily modify their cultural references even while on stage. Sometimes the material seems daring, at other times tame, and the disparity is never more marked than in matters of race.

Intriguingly, only the frequently UK-based Scott Capurro referred to President Obama. I admire the vicious San Franciscan but he was a poor choice of compere for this event, antagonising many with his combative style.

All the other acts had Scottish ancestry, but only headliner Danny Lobell felt confident enough to joke about it with some deliciously sniping impressions of his Aberdeen aunts. Marshall Chiles from Georgia, one of the most ethnically diverse states in the US, casually tossed out a line about an African-American thief, any subtle subversion of the stereotype lost on me. A reformed pot addict, Chiles is a low-energy performer but he finally won the crowd round with excruciating details of his vasectomy.

Bernadette Pauley fared better, playing the neurotic alcoholic in a dysfunctional marriage with verve and some sharp writing. But it was her fellow New Yorker, Lobell, who shone, exploring his Jewish heritage and revealing versatile vocal chords, his Chinese violin in a massage parlour their funniest employment.