As the light dimmed in Grimsby Auditorium, Jimmy Carr’s trademark opening PowerPoint presentation began. This at first seemed overly used by the comedian, who has employed this method to warm up the audience several times on his tours. Fortunately, it works. This time those in the audience were expected to read out sections of the screen written in red, and this definitely lowered the inhibitions of the audience as they played swear bingo shouting out “ball-bag” and other such eloquent insults.
As the man himself entered his demeanour was confident, as always, and he almost immediately cut the applause short with a quick succession of jokes. On TV Carr always comes across as extremely comfortable and well prepared, but in an earlier tour (viewed in Cambridge in 2008) his show seemed scripted, and Carr at times appeared to read his jokes from a pad, as if to remind himself. Whether he was testing new material when this happened is unclear, but it felt a bit sloppy from a comedian who himself joked on stage that he is “the poster boy of Channel 4.” Fortunately, this didn’t occur in his latest performance, and he was filled with the smug self-confidence his fans have learnt to enjoy and appreciate.
Carr’s quick succession of knuckle-biting jokes was entertaining, punctuated hilariously by a series of joke-depicting cartoons. These were highly amusing and used to great effect, but as you’d expect the images weren’t always of a PG rating (probably why it was an over-16s performance), and this led to saggy granny boobs, stereotypical gay men, and Jimmy Carr arriving via womb, all making an appearance before the audience.
The cartoons, as well as being funny and often inventive, also served to break up the performance so that Carr’s format of quick, sharp punch-lines didn’t become stale, but this was not the only method of doing this. Twice within the performance there was a question and answer session in which the comedian was able to show off his Rapier Wit. These sections of the performance were invitations for hecklers to step forward and mostly they were uninventive jibes which quickly got turned into more inventive and rather more rapid “your mother” jokes by the comedian; but then the magic happened. From a row somewhere in the right hand side balcony a group of lads had had a few too many beers. and they decided to quiz the comedian on certain matters which made little sense at all. Obviously the retorts on stage were hilarious and the show moved on. But not our little friends in the balcony, oh no, no, no, they kept the questions going sporadically throughout the evening to the obvious annoyance of Jimmy Carr. Not that he let it stop him. It just allowed the famous comedian to show off his talent again and again, even using these idiots as a joke to the audience by telling one man he’d put him with the retards in the top row if he wasn’t quiet. The remarks from the balcony failed to cease as they began more and more to think they were having a conversation with the celebrity on stage even telling Carr that it was “like teaching a pork chop with you mate.” The comedian’s exchanges however, were brutal and honest and he lost no respect from the audience in what he said. What the bloke had ever been doing attempting to teach a piece of meat, on the other hand, is beyond this humble reviewer. But there is hope that he’s stopped and also learnt, if anything, that heckling a comedian, especially one as harsh as Jimmy Carr, rarely works. Maybe he would win more arguments if he stayed at home and shouted at Channel 4.
Jonni Manning
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