Richard Brown: You Are Not My Audience

• Craig Angus
• 17 August 2018

This article is from 2018.

credit: Napier Photography

Pessimistic observational comedy from reluctant observational comedian

Glasgow comedian Richard Brown warms up for his own show by doing a sarcastic minute of 'observational comedy', before the arrival of the show's star: the dark, alternative comedian. Here's the great irony: Brown is a good observational comic, albeit one with a gloomy disposition. He claims that because his pop culture references are all outdated (and he doesn't understand people), he can't do observational comedy; but he absolutely can and does.

Brown's strongest material is straight and to the point, and he has his own style: one of languid pessimism. He skewers vegetarians for being hypocrites, but rather than stopping there he has a pop at deluded meat eaters and pointless pescatarians too. His musings on Count Dankula and free speech are also intelligent too, and even when he ventures into the disturbing frontiers of his mind, a gag about Princess Diana is sharp. It splits the room but surely that's the point.

It's only when he begins explaining his thought processes that he falls short: such as why he can't come up with a more contemporary shorthand for 'unpopular popstar' than Dappy from N-Dubz, why he's used Paisley as a geographical reference point, and why the audience should be able to laugh at his People's Princess joke. There's a potentially very strong comedian here, but he's still finding his voice.

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