His recent BBC documentary The Dirty South announced a mission to redeem the reputation of America's bottom half – which may be why Rich Hall has left redneck alter ego Otis Lee Crenshaw behind on his current tour. And yet, tonight's highlights find Hall at his keyboard, singing Otis-alike songs about dysfunctional superheroes and the Ku Klux Klan. Elsewhere, it's perfectly enjoyable to listen as this grindstone-voiced comic dispenses grumpy/twinkly observations on Boris Johnson, Raoul Moat and the Tea Party. But his straight standup lacks climaxes, and it's only when Hall knocks out a song that the evening truly takes off.
Before that, he ranges across life, politics and culture on both sides of the Atlantic, and never lacks deserving targets for his barking ire. There's a cathartic rant about what Gordon Brown should have said to Gillian Duffy, derision for America's colour-coded system of terror alerts ("What if it's blue? Is terror pregnant?"), and frayed patience at Al Gore's celebrity-driven climate change campaign. "Put a brick in all eight of your toilets, you mansion-dwelling Tennessee bastard," rasps Hall.
So far, so laconically entertaining. But the musical numbers concentrate the Hall shtick. Some are part-improvised; all combine pathos and absurdity to delicious effect. "Hate on your knuckles/ shotgun down your pants," runs his Klan ballad. "Wondering why no one is asking you to dance." Lyrics like that do nothing for the good name of the deep south, but they shore up Hall's reputation as one of the most reliable live acts in comedy.
