Black standup at the Barbican? To the comics on this bill, the august location for tonight's event is a joke in itself. "You don't have to worry 'bout no ragamuffin when you come out, do you?" says Felix Dexter in a thick West Indian accent. Twenty years on, the first generation of black British standups are reassembling to celebrate their success. But there's nothing self-congratulatory about the Originals, whose show holds up a mirror to black Britain's concerns, prejudices and accepted wisdoms – then twists the image into an impressively diverse range of comic styles.
To the uninitiated, it is fascinating. White people who think of dogs as man's best friend will be bluntly disabused by Leo Muhammad – like Dexter, a star of BBC1's The Real McCoy – who depicts them, hilariously, as black people's historic enemy. There are multiple gags about the corrective methods of West Indian parents – including Angie Le Mar's edgy routine about beating her own kids – and several jokes about Asians, ranging from playful accusations of Asian-on-black racism to a contrary dismay at "all these Asian boys trying to be black".
Black youth culture is likewise a hot topic. Dexter performs a droll dumb-show in which he adopts a "more black" walk to avert the threat of lurking hoodies. Felicity Ethnic – whose patois is lost on me, but whose anarchic spirit is universally intelligible – has a gloriously inappropriate routine about disciplining mouthy schoolkids. And Miles Crawford contributes a goofy variety turn in which he fashions an "MTV Base, rap-style" song from audience suggestions. The older generation are clearly engaged with the new; there's no nostalgia here, nor has experience mellowed these standup pioneers. They were The Real McCoy two decades ago, and they still are.
