CityLife

Sean Lock: Lockipedia

Sean Lock’s Lockipedia
The Lowry
April 7, 2010

Frame a set of intellectually hilarious gags all you like, but it turns out there’s few brainy gags that can cause a bigger belly laugh than a man fantasising about having an internal car horn.

“Old woman at the tills paying with vouchers - honk honk honk!” yells 8 Out Of 10 Cats panellist Sean Lock. “Person standing on the wrong side of the escalator – honk honk!”

Finding a way to sum up our collective discontent with an utterly bizarre punchline is Sean’s shtick. He may look like that guy from accounting, but he’s got one of the most imaginative approaches to comedy out there.

Fans of his self-penned BBC series 15 Storeys High will understand the frisky and scattergun nature of his diatribes; there is more than a little of the real Sean Lock in his on-screen alter ego Vince, and even in Vince’s insouciant flatmate Errol.

There are many lines in Lockipedia that would have fitted that script, not least Lock’s damning assessment of Britishness, his frustrated rant about supermarket bags for life (“I’ve got a cummerbund at home that’s seen more action”), his love of budget supermarket Lidl – “Because I don’t recognise any of the products, it’s like being on holiday” – or his attack on his wheat intolerant friends who dress their digestive quibbles up as debilitating illnesses.

There are more obvious targets for his comic jibes – politicians, the credit crunch, language, charity collectors – but even these are treated with abnormal obscurity.

BNP leader Nick Griffin comes in for the funniest dressing down and Lock’s assessment of him utterly justifies his target. “Fire in Madame Tussauds,” barks Lock in his Michael Caine-meets-Tommy Cooper accent. “One eye going to the shops, the other coming home with the change.”

Beyond his brilliant one-liners, Lock is also a fine physical comic. His thunderous romp around the stage imitating Madonna’s dance moves is utterly startling, and his assessment of his forehead frown lines as his body’s only six-pack is exactly the kind of observational humour he excels at.

And yet, the show isn’t without its shaky moments. Inspired it may be, but Lock’s second half game of audience battleships – where he calls out a seat number and asks an audience member for a topic to gag about – is hit and miss.

But it’s also an interesting display of how quick Lock is on his feet (and, perhaps, of how much time he has on his hands to build up the dictionary of jokes he flicks through on his lectern), and explanation enough for his two sell out shows at The Lowry.

Sean Lock also plays Buxton on April 9 and The Lowry on April 11 (2010).

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