Perth Festival

Marcus Brigstocke – Why the Long Face?

Perth Concert Hall

Lorraine Wilson

four stars

BREXIT makes Marcus Brigstocke extremely unhappy. He’s not alone of course, but this level of incensed disbelief, directed at what could be half the audience, could have made the seat-buying punters unhappy too. Unlike other locations around the country, they stayed.

The show is about happiness and gratitude, so banishing that elephant from the auditorium early is wise. The political material is impassioned, with moments that sparkle through the fury, but even he seems surer on non-partisan ground. He does makes great play of Boris Johnson’s referral to Obama as a “half Kenyan”, alternating between a decent Obama impersonation and a cartoon African voice. The laughs don’t come from this apparent throwback to a 1970s ITV sitcom. They know that Johnson is the joke.

There is also apparent outrage at vaping, nail bars, and the man who ran the National Speed Awareness Course he had to take to avoid points (twice). Even Elaine Paige comes in for some good-natured ribbing.

Brigstocke is strongest on the most personal material. The gut-wrenching sorrow of a painful relationship break-up somehow finds him crying in Newcastle town centre, in a headlock as a Geordie takes a selfie. Although the second half is dedicated to happiness and where we find it, the best moment is his outside perspective on the day when 56 SNP members descended on Westminster for the first time.

Brigstocke is unashamedly middle-class. He doesn’t deny the posh, but a charmed London life has made him grateful rather than resentful. Through the rage is the warmth of a man who cares, probably too much for his own good.