Comedy review: America Stands Up! Glasgow

This US talent showcase is always a must-see at the Glasgow International Comedy Festival, previously affording UK debuts to such top-drawer acts as Hannibal Buress, Kyle Kinane and Marina Franklin.
The Stand Comedy Club Glasgow. Picture: ContributedThe Stand Comedy Club Glasgow. Picture: Contributed
The Stand Comedy Club Glasgow. Picture: Contributed

America Stands Up! - The Stand, Glasgow

***

And it remains a fascinating cultural exchange, especially in terms of what constitutes edgy stand-up. Though not a natural MC, Dave Fulton acquitted himself well as the Brit-based-Yank compère, dusting off an entertaining tale of his misadventures with the late Mitch Hedberg.

With his oddly paced delivery, nervous disposition and child-like looks, Joe Machi is immediately distinctive. To this, he adds scenarios of being a loser in love and social situations but resists playing low status with vengeance-inflected punchlines. Plenty of these are great but it took time for him and the audience to bridge the incongruity together, less a question of their appetite for dark material, more of them tuning into his exotica. Ultimately though, he convinced with his closing Hitler gags.

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An outlier on this bill, Canadian and Edinburgh Fringe veteran Caroline Rhea contrasts her wholesome role on Sabrina, The Teenage Witch with her reality as a cynical mother-of-one. Some of her observations are a little broad but she’s a compelling storyteller, eliciting huge laughs from simply recreating her ex-partner’s snoring.

Then came Paul Mercurio, an in-your-face Italian-American, ditching any pretence to material by simply dragging people onstage for interrogation and photos. Out of context, him miming blow darts in relation to a black audience member seems indefensible. But coming from a more ethnically diverse melting pot, he effectively gave himself licence to bait Scottish political correctness, for a set that had zero content but deserved the headline slot for brashness alone.

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