It’s so easy to hate, isn’t it? But it’s hellishly hard to make your misanthropy as joyful an experience as Jon Richardson manages here. And make no mistake, Richardson has a problem with the messiness of existence. His list of intolerance includes mopey indie rockers, children, billionaires, festivals, Americans, couples, his friends and love. “It’s f***ing exhausting, life, isn’t it?” he chirrups after detailing some Sisyphean task or other — having to pay his bills, perhaps, or trying to persuade his flatmates to wash up properly.
This could easily be smug nihilism. Instead, Richardson lets us take pleasure in seeing our own gnarliest little gripes aired — while never forgetting to mention that his attitude is at least as wonky as the world he’s bemoaning. He sets out his stall at the start, promising us “my comical hatred, not actual jokes”. Yet while there’s nothing here to inspire a bidding war between Christmas-cracker factories, the softly smiling Richardson has the vital knack of making tightly organised, densely inventive lines play with apparently improvised ease.
He refers to his OCD tendencies: he’s stepped on his mike lead with his left foot, he tells us, so soon he will have to step on it with his right foot. Yet, whatever internal stratagems he’s using to keep the world at bay, he’s at ease with his unease. Richardson says he’s trying to be a better person and, crucially, there’s a warped sincerity to everything he says. It doesn’t take much scratching to see the romantic behind the cynic.
Only an idealist would note that the casual drinking sessions of youth become something you have to plan months ahead once you hit 30. Only someone who cared about love would deconstruct Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty so swiftly and acutely. And only a wildly confident comic would tell the best misogynist joke I’ve ever heard — and create the context to ensure it’s more a joke on him than on womankind.
Richardson will be hosting Stand Up For the Weekend on Fridays on Channel 4 from the end of the month. But in this two-hour show he’s got time to create his own slow groove, to mock the world and mock himself too. Catch this oddly warming masterclass in misery if you can.
Box office: 08448 733433, to Sat. Then touring to June 30
The Times - 18th April 2012
by Dominic Maxwell
This could easily be smug nihilism. Instead, Richardson lets us take pleasure in seeing our own gnarliest little gripes aired — while never forgetting to mention that his attitude is at least as wonky as the world he’s bemoaning. He sets out his stall at the start, promising us “my comical hatred, not actual jokes”. Yet while there’s nothing here to inspire a bidding war between Christmas-cracker factories, the softly smiling Richardson has the vital knack of making tightly organised, densely inventive lines play with apparently improvised ease.
He refers to his OCD tendencies: he’s stepped on his mike lead with his left foot, he tells us, so soon he will have to step on it with his right foot. Yet, whatever internal stratagems he’s using to keep the world at bay, he’s at ease with his unease. Richardson says he’s trying to be a better person and, crucially, there’s a warped sincerity to everything he says. It doesn’t take much scratching to see the romantic behind the cynic.
Only an idealist would note that the casual drinking sessions of youth become something you have to plan months ahead once you hit 30. Only someone who cared about love would deconstruct Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty so swiftly and acutely. And only a wildly confident comic would tell the best misogynist joke I’ve ever heard — and create the context to ensure it’s more a joke on him than on womankind.
Richardson will be hosting Stand Up For the Weekend on Fridays on Channel 4 from the end of the month. But in this two-hour show he’s got time to create his own slow groove, to mock the world and mock himself too. Catch this oddly warming masterclass in misery if you can.
Box office: 08448 733433, to Sat. Then touring to June 30
The Times - 18th April 2012
by Dominic Maxwell
posted by Jon Richardson News
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