Arj Barker: Get In My Head, London
Even comedy aficionados know Arj Barker better for his appearances in cult comedy series Flight Of The Conchords than for his solo stand-up work. Yet Barker’s a proper hard-working comic, having gigged for more than 20 years and picked up the best newcomer award at the fringe back when it was still sponsored by Perrier. Onstage, he comes across as a version of the kind of guy you get calling up a radio phone-in. He points out problems with the world, and comes up with completely dumb prescriptions for solving them, using the kind of unthinking idiot logic that masquerades as common sense. It’s not like he’s playing a character, so much as accessing a kind of stoner subconscious that understands nothing while thinking it has the answer to everything. You’d be terrified if he became a politician – and some of the stuff he comes out with for laughs isn’t a million miles away from the inanities spouted by beer-swilling Faragistes – but as a comic, he’s a richly entertaining exposer of contemporary gormlessness.
Soho Theatre, W1, Mon to 28 Jul
Iain Stirling, London & Brighton
Parents and infants alike will probably need little introduction to Iain Stirling, an amiable young lad from Edinburgh who formerly had the job of linking programmes on CBBC. Having turned his back on kids’ TV to pursue stand-up, Stirling’s rather more politically engaged than you might expect from a guy who used to read out birthday cards in between episodes of Tracy Beaker. The injection of excitement into Scotland’s political scene courtesy of the referendum and subsequent SNP landslide has clearly captured this young comic’s imagination. While some Scottish comics avoid the subject so as not to ruffle delicate feathers on either side of the nationalist-unionist divide, Stirling’s willing to crack gags about Sturgeon and Salmond, and provides a an intriguing twentysomething perspective on the current state of his nation.
Comedy Pub, SW1, Sun; Komedia, Brighton, Thu; Jongleurs, NW1, Fri; Comedy Pub, SW1, Fri
Nick Revell, Cambridge and Lancaster
When Nick Revell started doing topical stand-up, the Conservatives were rolling back the welfare state and Labour were agonising over whether to shift left or not. The fact that his stuff is just as relevant today as it was in the 80s isn’t solely down to what’s turned out to be the cyclical nature of British politics, but also his consistent willingness to reinvent and refresh his approach while maintaining the spirit of passionate indignation that’s powered all his best routines. Rather than rehashing old glories, Revell insists on moving forward. Right now, he’s polishing material for an upcoming fringe run under the typically gentle title of Feminist Porno Jihadi. Expect more incisive analysis of where the country is going so spectacularly wrong, accessorised as always with colourful imagery and lots and lots of proper jokes.
