Andy Parsons Gruntled Live 2011 Stand-up Review - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire

Andy Parsons "Gruntled", O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, September 15th 2011

rating: 3

When faced with such exuberant co-stars as Hugh Dennis, and until recently, Frankie Boyle, Andy Parsons is, for my take, the weakest link of the BBC's superb panel show Mock the Week. That his gags too often come across as laboured, as though waiting for the audience to "get it", is either something you'll love or hate, but given his long-standing tenure on the show, plenty apparently seem to love it. Whatever side you fall down on, we thankfully get a far more off-the-cuff Parsons when his hands aren't tied by the binds of a license fee, for though his stand-up show Gruntled is very rough around the edges and occasionally self-plagiarises his own TV work, it is a solidly entertaining 90-minutes of comedy nevertheless. It was rather difficult to be enthusiastic about the show from the outset, if only because it failed to fill the fairly undemanding seating capacity of the Empire, such that frenzied PR reps had to usher unsuspecting patrons from their back row seats to the half empty front before things kicked off as this was to be the taped live show. Parsons, upon coming to the stage, at least had the good sense to make a joke about it, and it is precisely his attitude to the show's various foibles which ultimately makes it work in spite of them. He has given the DVD editor plenty of work to do for sure, with flubbed lines and ironic laughter from the audience occurring frequently, though smartly he takes it on the chin with a self-deprecating swagger, incorporating it well into the show. Much of Parsons' humour throughout the show traces along the lines of the typical shtick you'd expect from Mock the Week - lefty-liberal political gags aimed at appeasing the predominantly middle-class student demographic - and while the criticisms of David Cameron and the current coalition government are hardly new, they hit the right targets with just enough wit. Where Parsons comes unstuck, however, is with some misguided pilfering from his own jibes from the aforementioned show; a string of jibes about the recent riots in London comes off as particularly crass, having been spoken near enough verbatim on Mock the Week no more than a month ago. When people are paying good money to see an act live - especially considering the overwhelming majority of the audience will be seeing Parsons precisely because of his work on Mock the Week - it comes off as not only immensely lazy but somewhat insulting. Nevertheless, there are plenty of hilarious moments, especially an anecdote about Parsons purchasing a jar of Hellman's mayonnaise only to find a pair of underpants resting in it, resulting in an amusingly dry dismissal via letter from a Hellman's rep. As Parsons quite rightly asserts himself, it's a lot more memorable than the more strident political gags peppered throughout the show. The most surprising element of Gruntled, however, was simply how sloppily presented it was. Considering - or perhaps because of - the fact that this show was being taped for the DVD, Parsons flubs jokes on a surprisingly frequent basis, yet again, his have-a-go attitude keeps the ship from sinking, and the majority of the time he's quick enough to turn it into an improvised joke. That he occasionally had to ask the audience not to laugh ironically, or to cheer instead for the sake of the recording's integrity, does take a little of the wind out of its sails as a slick comic product, but at the same time, it's interesting to observe how slapdash recorded stand-up work can be before it makes it to our screens. Amusingly, the final blooper was down not to Parsons but a stage hand, who incorrectly operated the stage door, and so Parsons had to kindly ask the audience to hang around while he performed an encore of his exit. Fans of Parsons are liable to find enough here to write home about, and though it surely demonstrates that Parsons isn't a superbly confident live comic performer, he at least has the quick wit and timing to take control and deviate from the script when things go a little awry. Andy Parsons Gruntled Live 2011 is coming to DVD on November 14th.