Improv America

Andrew Lawrence

I went to see Andrew Lawrence in his latest full length show “The Too Ugly for Television Tour” at the Pleasance in Edinburgh and was very impressed. In a climate in which comedians are so often safe and mainstream it was refreshing to witness an act whose dark and clever material was as refreshing as a blast of cold air on a hot day. Lawrence is a highly skilled writer whose long, wordy rants are invariably cruel and very, very funny. As a performer too he is dextrous, never once fluffing a line or missing the beat in the intricate rhythms of his text. His material is mostly drawn from the frustrations of his life: his Mother’s underwhelmed reaction to seeing one of his gigs, people who bump in to you in the street because they are busy texting, The Guardian’s PC approach to covering comedy, old people and the money the taxpayers pour into medical supplies for them–the list goes on. It is the times when his anger is real that the rage is most exhilarating and more importantly very funny indeed. My personal favourite was a rant about the pretentious rich kids in the Pleasance Courtyard in which an imagined inane conversation got (for me anyway) the biggest laugh of the night. On the evening that I went to see Lawrence he felt that the audience response was tepid and while he made sure not to blame the audience (a common habit for comedians) I felt that he need not have worried at all. I for one was literally crying with laughter and if there were a few nonplussed faces here and there then more fool them! They should have gone to see somebody bland such as John Bishop instead and have only themselves to blame. Lawrence has long been an established act on the circuit since he won a string of awards after getting a place in the final of So you Think You’re Funny in 2003. However despite his long standing high quality work on the circuit (and a regular role in the sitcom Ideal) he hasn’t really broken through in to the public consciousness yet. A forthcoming slot on Michael Macintyre’s Comedy Road show should solve this predicament and I for one can’t wait to see more of him on our screens as well as on our stages.

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