Comedy review: Limmy's Vines

IF ANYONE can elevate masturbatory gurning to a level approaching performance art, it's Limmy. For better or worse, no other comic is so immersed in the rhythms and culture of the internet as the Glaswegian.

The effect of Limmy's weird, intense clips is hallucinatory

Tramway, Glasgow ***

And this hour-long compilation of his short-form films, made with the now defunct, six second looping service Vine, is far funnier than it has any right to be. The cumulative effect of so many weird, intense clips pulls you in like an hallucinatory nightmare.

Playing over two 30-minute halves, in more-or-less chronological order, about 90 per cent of the clips just feature Limmy. The majority of the skits are like a particularly twisted Aphex Twin video crossed with Taxi Driver’s famous ‘You Talking To Me?’ scene, with Limmy engaging himself in close-up dialogue, violence and erotic come-on.

Many of these feel like him auditioning potential catchphrases and characters for use in his television sketch shows. And indeed, as his manipulation of the technology improves, grotesques like his incessantly chuckling plasterer command more screen time.

Others, such as those sketches where he spots something untoward on television, are deceptively and skilfully edited. His young son makes several appearances and there’s an unsettling contrast between this cuteness and the sociopathic fantasies explored elsewhere.

Afterwards, a post-show Q&A enlightened with its discussion of the origins of Limmy’s reformed junkie character Jacqueline McCafferty. She and the rest of Limmy’s Show may reside in the past, but these raw, occasionally hilarious vines certainly whet the appetite for Limmy’s Homemade Show, coming to BBC Scotland next month.

JAY RICHARDSON