Could it be magic? 
Andrew Lawrence is a magician. It’s the only explanation for it, the only way he can have won over an audience so quickly. And as if that wasn’t kudos enough, this was an audience of which the majority, as Lawrence established within the first few minutes of this Radio 4 recording, had 1) never seen him before and 2) never even heard of him. In spite of this, after a whirlwind 10 minute warm up, Lawrence came back onto the stage (as was required by the nature of the recording) to rapturous applause, already proving why he was the one on stage and we were but the humble audience. As an Up the Creek regular and one of the few who had previously seen Lawrence, I came already knowing I was in for a great night and on the whole it didn’t disappoint...
Aesthetically pleasing
As Lawrence takes to the stage you can’t help but be struck by his appearance – he has a “face you will never forget”; not in a good way. With eyes tinier than Katie Price’s brain cell, wispy ginger hair, and an albinoesque complexion, Lawrence may be all kinds of ‘pleasing’, but aesthetically is not one of them; something which provided him with self deprecating material à gogo in the first recording which dealt with our appearance obsessed society.
This was definitely the more successful of the two episodes recorded that night. With fresh material, Lawrence’s sometimes over-rehearsed delivery didn’t have the chance to surface and his unique turn of phrase felt exactly that. Tales of a sadistic Spanish dentist, an equally sadistic sun worshipping mother, and the joy of squirrel stamping had the audience rapt from start to finish. Having seemingly left their conscience at the door, the typically twisted nature of Lawrence’s material was lapped up and 15 minutes passed by in a flash. The audience was left craving more and somewhat disappointingly they got it...
Quit while you’re ahead
I say disappointingly because Lawrence’s next recording on the topic of human interaction felt somewhat tired. The content was old, and whilst the majority of the audience would not have known this, Lawrence clearly felt more at ease with this material, and his tendency to just ‘churn it out’ resurfaced. You might say that Lawrence’s familiarity with the material was inversely proportional to the enjoyment level of the gig...well you might if you were a mathematician.
New material, however, was not totally lacking from this episode. An elephant’s inner monologue provided a great opportunity for Lawrence’s imagination to run wild and somewhat ironically my personal highlight came in this half; let’s just say a Brummie accent has never been so well received thanks to the words ‘Kit Kat Chunky’ and ‘Monster Munch’. Incidentally Lawrence may not be aesthetically pleasing but he is most definitely aurally pleasing. Each anecdote is delivered with an appropriate accent or voice as Lawrence appears possessed by a range of characters that he can conjure up at just a moment’s notice, from the aforementioned Spanish dentist to his own mother.
The frustration came ultimately in the thought that the audience might go away believing that the first recording was a fluke rather than realising that the second was the anomaly. There’s no doubt that Lawrence is good, indeed he will soon be appearing on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (currently the bar by which all comedians seem to be bizarrely measured), and whilst this gig might not have shown him off to his full potential it did at least prove one thing: Andrew Lawrence is not like everybody else - he’s funnier.
Comedy Hen
Andrew Lawrence is a magician. It’s the only explanation for it, the only way he can have won over an audience so quickly. And as if that wasn’t kudos enough, this was an audience of which the majority, as Lawrence established within the first few minutes of this Radio 4 recording, had 1) never seen him before and 2) never even heard of him. In spite of this, after a whirlwind 10 minute warm up, Lawrence came back onto the stage (as was required by the nature of the recording) to rapturous applause, already proving why he was the one on stage and we were but the humble audience. As an Up the Creek regular and one of the few who had previously seen Lawrence, I came already knowing I was in for a great night and on the whole it didn’t disappoint...
Aesthetically pleasing
As Lawrence takes to the stage you can’t help but be struck by his appearance – he has a “face you will never forget”; not in a good way. With eyes tinier than Katie Price’s brain cell, wispy ginger hair, and an albinoesque complexion, Lawrence may be all kinds of ‘pleasing’, but aesthetically is not one of them; something which provided him with self deprecating material à gogo in the first recording which dealt with our appearance obsessed society.
This was definitely the more successful of the two episodes recorded that night. With fresh material, Lawrence’s sometimes over-rehearsed delivery didn’t have the chance to surface and his unique turn of phrase felt exactly that. Tales of a sadistic Spanish dentist, an equally sadistic sun worshipping mother, and the joy of squirrel stamping had the audience rapt from start to finish. Having seemingly left their conscience at the door, the typically twisted nature of Lawrence’s material was lapped up and 15 minutes passed by in a flash. The audience was left craving more and somewhat disappointingly they got it...
Quit while you’re ahead
I say disappointingly because Lawrence’s next recording on the topic of human interaction felt somewhat tired. The content was old, and whilst the majority of the audience would not have known this, Lawrence clearly felt more at ease with this material, and his tendency to just ‘churn it out’ resurfaced. You might say that Lawrence’s familiarity with the material was inversely proportional to the enjoyment level of the gig...well you might if you were a mathematician.
New material, however, was not totally lacking from this episode. An elephant’s inner monologue provided a great opportunity for Lawrence’s imagination to run wild and somewhat ironically my personal highlight came in this half; let’s just say a Brummie accent has never been so well received thanks to the words ‘Kit Kat Chunky’ and ‘Monster Munch’. Incidentally Lawrence may not be aesthetically pleasing but he is most definitely aurally pleasing. Each anecdote is delivered with an appropriate accent or voice as Lawrence appears possessed by a range of characters that he can conjure up at just a moment’s notice, from the aforementioned Spanish dentist to his own mother.
The frustration came ultimately in the thought that the audience might go away believing that the first recording was a fluke rather than realising that the second was the anomaly. There’s no doubt that Lawrence is good, indeed he will soon be appearing on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (currently the bar by which all comedians seem to be bizarrely measured), and whilst this gig might not have shown him off to his full potential it did at least prove one thing: Andrew Lawrence is not like everybody else - he’s funnier.
Comedy Hen
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