There was quite a choice of events in Glasgow tonight - Saxon at the O2, Palaye Royale at SWG3 & Will Mellor and Ralf Little at the Pavilion - but I stuck to my guns with the order I placed over a year ago for Ardal O'Hanlon at the King's Theatre. My wife loves him.
Last time I saw him, he'd been rusty, having been away from stand-up for a while. This time, I'm pleased to say he was on top form.
His support act, Tamsyn Kelly, unfortunately, was not. This Penzance comedian, currently residing in Glasgow, presents herself as dippy but might do better aiming for funny. Her act might work in a comedy club, but to a sober theatre audience, she appeared slow, clumsy and stilted, silences working against her. She elicited a few laughs, but the room got the better of her on this occasion.
After the interval, as if he knew the audience needed a lift, Ardal came on dancing comically to the intro music. Lambasting himself for allowing us to witness such a sight, he then did it again. It was a great way to introduce us to his silliness.
Behind him was a screen, which he used irregularly to display photos and images to visualise particular jokes. He decried his position as the third-born of his family, commenting that those born into that situation practically need to raise themselves to survive. The paucity of family photos featuring him reflected this bias. With no expectations being placed on him, he was allowed to do as he pleased. Traditionally, third-born sons would join the ministry, but that was not for him (cue a funny picture of Father Dougal).
His comedy thrives on confusion and exasperation as he struggles to understand the world as it has become. His delivery has a great rhythm, throwing gag upon gag and never in ways you anticipate. Even his takedown of Trump had a surreal quality to it (even his hair isn't real; it's grown by the worms in his brain). The theme of not being himself flowed naturally throughout the set, except for one segue, which deliberately didn't (I can't recall what it was).
He discussed his dislike of receiving requests for feedback every time he shopped or went anywhere. Not everything is an experience worthy of rating. He also explained how creepy it was that a conversation between him and his wife about washing machines led to him receiving ads for those products while browsing the internet. Now they only chat about topics they have no interest in to confuse the algorithms. Likewise, he buys items he doesn't want, just so the internet cannot predict his needs. It's an expensive pastime, but worth it.
For someone so anti-AI, he seemed to love using it for some of his photos, such as the one of the gentleman milking the cauliflower or Ardal in a cummerbund, which was actually a sash.
The payoff to his third-born material came at the end, when he described being invited to an audience with the Pope. He struggled to understand why, and prepared a five-minute routine just in case he was asked to demonstrate his skills. Surprisingly, a number of the other comedians did the same, too. He showed us a picture of him meeting the Pope.
Ardal gleefully shared that upon his return to Ireland, he became his parents' most important son and that they displayed his photos of the encounter throughout their home. Finally, he was their number-one child. Ardal then rambled on for another ten minutes until he ran out of material, at which point he informed us the show had actually finished with the Pope gag and he was only talking out of politeness until we left. Then the music started playing again, and he danced off stage. The house lights came up remarkably quickly after that, indicating we should get out.
I received a request for feedback about how ATG did less than an hour after the show. I didn't give them the satisfaction of a reply. This review would suffice.
Ticket Price: 2 x £31.02 plus transaction fee £3.95 = £65.99 from ATG.
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