There are some easy laughs available to an American comedian visiting Britain in the summer of 2016. The appalling UK weather? Check. The appalling US election? Likewise check, in this maiden London gig by the hotly tipped South Carolina comic Rory Scovel.
“The planet is overpopulated,” he deadpans on the latter subject, “but we’ve narrowed it down to the top two.” The heavy irony is characteristic of a performer who doesn’t demand to be taken remotely seriously.
Scovel isn’t here to talk politics, but to toy with us, pretending to be a Trump disciple, a gun enthusiast (well, a holster enthusiast) and a pro-lifer – in that he hates abortion doctors so much, he’d prevent their births with, er, abortions. (“Stop it before it starts!”) It’s more silliness than satire, reminiscent of the British-Canadian goofball Tony Law, and not only because of the hillbilly beard. But there’s also an insurrectionist streak at play. Scovel doesn’t let the gig settle, as an anecdotal riff about driving on magic mushrooms gives way to a routine about anal sex that is scored, for no reason, by lounge music on a Yamaha organ.
As his excellent warm-up act Jay Larson did before him, Scovel then delivers a sex-toy set piece about life on the road, deploying a so-called “fleshlight” in lonely hotel rooms. The dissonance is droll between hepcat demeanour and the bathetic reality laid bare. This is a mouthwatering taster of a comic whose self-satisfied stoner persona can’t conceal sharp wit and a slyly subversive sense of fun.
• At the Invisible Dot, London, until 4 August. Box office: 020-3771 8452.
