CityLife

Rich Hall and Otis Lee Crenshaw

IT is a longstanding and inaccurate assertion that ‘America doesn’t do irony’. Despite a quarter of a century of brilliantly observed irony, from M*A*S*H to The Simpsons and Curb Your Enthusiasm, snobbery persists and the American stand-up that makes it on the British comedy circuit is a surprisingly rare treasure.

Known to millions from his wry contributions on Have I Got News For You and QI, Rich Hall grew up amidst the plains of Montana and is as American as cherry pie. Far from home, Hall has filled the 500-capacity main auditorium at the Middleton Arena with promises of a show in two halves.

The first 50 minutes is traditional stand-up, with Hall’s brand of straight-talking observational comedy running its mid-west drawl over topics including Obama’s Audacity of Hope, global economic meltdown and how to ‘deal’ with prairie dog infestations.

The material is pure Americana, skilfully arranged for a British audience and very funny. After the interval, Hall’s ‘alter ego’ Otis Lee Crenshaw provides the entertainment, largely in the form of country music.

Acts based on performers’ alter egos (as opposed to character comedy) have enjoyed limited success; some flop, most are no better than awful and a handful succeed, if not for long. Those that succeed with the help of country music can be counted on Captain Hook’s bad hand.

The reason that Rich Hall’s Otis Lee Crenshaw works so well is that the character is essentially just Hall’s excuse to indulge an obvious love of country music. The audience is asked to do no more than accept that an American likes guns and beer and singing about both; not a stellar leap of imagination.

Opening with date-mugging classic, Do Anything You Want To The Girl, Just Don’t Hurt Me, Hall – sorry, Crenshaw – quickly has the crowd in the palm of his hand. Along with Roberta and My Guitar’s A Lot Like A Woman, the music is gentle, witty and, refreshingly, is not just an excuse for the comedian to show off that he can play the guitar as well (though Hall clearly can).

Despite the safety net of character-based comedy, where a crowd-pleasing stereotype or reliable catchphrase is never far away, Rich Hall is not averse to taking risks and works extensively with the audience, certainly more than most comics do.

His exchanges with Vinny the unemployed tanner, including an expertly improvised song (Big Bad Vinny), are so good that many in the packed crowd must wonder if Vinny is an accomplice (he isn’t).

Vinny even takes the stage for the musical finale, F**k You Disney (‘a happy song’).

Whether as himself or as Otis Lee Crenshaw, the success of Rich Hall’s withering take on US culture owes as much to his own downright Americanism as it does to his sharp mind and sharper tongue.

The audience laughs with him and in doing so it laughs with a nation mocking itself. Oh, the irony.

Tweet