Comedy review: Robin Ince & Josie Long, Glasgow

A LIVE version of Robin Ince and Josie Long’s shambolic, sporadic podcast, this is a show for established fans only.

Robin Ince. Picture: Complimentary

Robin Ince & Josie Long - The Stand, Glasgow

* * *

Criticisms are jerry-built into the loose format, with the pair explaining that they’re less bothered about provoking negative reactions than ambivalence, and revelling in the idea of niche gags eliciting belly laughs from only a few people at a time. Unfortunately, occasional amusement was all this did in fact arouse.

Individually, neither is the tightest performer, which is usually to their credit. But in tandem it frustrates, their amateurish, free-wheeling and relatively spontaneous charm undermined by the fact that they can’t help but interrupt each other if a diversion presents itself, not always to greater reward. The only momentum this show built came from folk singer Grace Petrie, whose anti-Tory protest songs again preached to the choir. But at least they distilled some of the passion and effusive joy Long and Ince are usually capable of in their stand-up, but which only the latter displayed in flashes. The notion of Ince covering a Tom O’Connor routine in the style of Stewart Lee, stretching it out for five minutes is amusing enough but strictly for the comedy cognoscenti. Whatever sympathies you have for Ince and Long’s worldviews and admiration for their talent as comics, too often this felt like an exercise in mutual back-slapping with an indulgent audience.