Stewart Lee has a withering routine about American comics who rely on cheap gags about their parents' ethnicity. "My mom is from France and my dad is from Spain, so when I see a baguette, I don't know whether to eat it, or shove it up my ass!"
Step forward Rob Schneider, who proves that no amount of ridicule can keep a lazy standup down. "I'm half Jewish and half Filipino – so my house smelled like soy sauce and the Holocaust." Ouch. Schneider is the star of the Deuce Bigalow movies and an Adam Sandler collaborator, visiting the UK for two nights. But Britain, in the 21st-century, is very much another country for Schneider, whose act teems with the kind of race and gender stereotypes, and lame one-liners, that haven't passed muster here since the 1970s.
And so, Muslims at airport security get it in the neck: "If your name takes up more than one page in your passport, spread your cheeks." And – in a routine about pharmaceutical advertising – "Viagra has blurred vision as a side effect," says Schneider. "Which, depending on what your wife looks like, could be an advantage."
Something about Schneider's bored tone implies even he doesn't find this stuff exciting. It's a shame, because there are flickers of life, as when he roleplays an encounter with a persistent fan, or imagines life as seen by his dog. But even his promising routines soon sink to the bottom of the barrel. The dog, for example, shits on his pillow.
There's plenty more in that tawdry vein – Schneider can seldom resist a reference to "balls" or "bitches". What there isn't – despite superficial references to his parents, his fiancee and daughter – is anything honest or self-revealing.
