It’s an hour that’s absurd, surreal and always totally hilarious, as Law takes the audience on a journey through his ‘Piking’ ancestry (his folks were Pirates and Vikings), indulges in some banter, and segues into a steel drum musical interlude that is as baffling as it is side-splitting (the instrument associated with romance and happiness can only produce melancholy in his hands, he muses).
The Best Show Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award 2012 nominee has been working the comedy circuit for ten years and joyfully admits it’s taken him this time to play to this many people – a basement in an arts centre in Soho! But he’s not about to let the opportunity stop him from launching into an elephant-based art installation routine.
For all the clowning though there is serious heart beneath it – “I feel things about stuff!” he says, while later launching into how the little trolls he has as daughters have run amok in his life. There is also a smart dissection of stand-ups’ routines and audience’s reactions to comedians’ material stitched into a closing segment that truly astonishes.
Law is, with doubt, one of the finest comedians working today, deserving of the plaudits his accurately titled-show has reaped. “To the Apollo,” he cries at one point, while proceeding to mock the Live At The Hammersmith Apollo’s habit of chatting with the celebrities placed in the auditorium’s front row – “We’ve Poll Pot with us tonight!”.
Go see his show – he’s headed for the big venues.
Tony Law: Maximum Nonsense
Where: Soho Theatre, W1D 3NE
When: Until Mar 2. 7.30pm. £12.50+
Tube: Tottenham Court Road
web: sohotheatre.com
