In a lesser controversy at this year’s fringe, the comic Matt Forde was mocked for tweeting peevishly at audience members bringing babies to his show. He should take a leaf out of Emmanuel Sonubi’s book. There’s a baby in the front row of the north Londoner’s gig today, and Sonubi riffs with the tot relaxedly throughout – and gets big laughs for doing so. That won’t be why this former bouncer secured himself a Dave’s best newcomer nomination; one doubts the baby is a fixture. But it’s indicative of the unflustered confidence and warmth that’s winning the comic well deserved attention.
You wouldn’t guess Sonubi was a newbie, in other words. There’s no eagerness to please: you meet this comic on his own terms, or not at all. But it’s hard to imagine anyone resisting. Emancipated excavates engaging tales from Sonubi’s previous life as a nightclub doorman – but also as a dad, a cruiseship entertainer, and the survivor of a recent heart scare. The bouncer material is particularly strong – because it’s fresh, in a standup context, but also because Sonubi constantly plays off his appearance (large, musclebound, archetypally scary) and his personality – a musical theatre lover who can’t fight and easily takes fright.
Of course, that scary archetype is a racist one, which is only implicitly acknowledged here. Race is a factor in the show: Sonubi jokes about “blackboard” as a supposedly taboo term, and the row over H&M’s “monkey” hoodies. But his take is pragmatic-philosophical, not political. He speaks out here in favour of offensive comedy – but Emancipated isn’t rattling any cages, with its routines about funny signs Sonubi has seen, or (standup first-base, this) the indignities of a recent rectal exam.
The show starts to feel shapeless by the end, and one of two of the attitudes Sonubi strikes (his unsentimentality towards kids, say) feel generic. More often, though, you’re seduced by the easy authority of his storytelling, and the account he gives of life in that comically fruitful territory between beefcake and beta male. It’s well worth a look – and on this evidence, you won’t even need a babysitter.
