Alun Cochrane review
Published: Monday 15th November 2010
The last time Alun Cochrane performed in Glasgow, the Yorkshireman's dubious inclusion in the Glasgay! Festival brochure prompted two punters to leave midway through the show, doubtless muttering about a contravention of the trade descriptions act. The incident still amuses the married father-of-one but he concedes his comedy isn't for everyone.
As is his wont, the lanky 35-year-old settled languidly into his stride here with 40 minutes of low-key domestic observations, mining laughs from the mundane with whimsical touches and the encroaching irritation of approaching middle-age. Household recycling, spilling oil in the kitchen, even the inscrutable vegetarianism of his mother - all of these raise Cochrane's hackles, even as he acknowledges the ridiculousness of his anger. Despite varied sales of this tour, if he wanted to he could simply play the grumpy young man, a safe booking for any mainstream comedy crowd.
But Cochrane is true to himself, unwilling to pander. He sports and defends the double denim look, apparently oblivious to the fact that one of his bêtes noires, Jeremy Clarkson, is perceived as a champion of the fashion in popular culture. The Top Gear host may be a lightning rod for liberal stand-ups but Cochrane takes him to task for his car journalism rather than his right-wing boorishness.
He's a stubborn, defiantly idiosyncratic comic, exemplified by his reaction to a "tell us a joke!" heckle in Sheffield. Failing to smash the rebellion at the time, he's now meeting the challenge head-on by expanding his repertoire. This show takes its title from his decision to add some uncharacteristic one liners to a set that otherwise features snapshots of his life, more "strangely touching" than funny. Downright sobering in a few instances actually, yet he manages to elicit laughs from these too.
Emerging in the second half for the show proper, randomly selecting his newly minted gags from a plastic tub marked "jokes", he invites the audience to vote for the best and worst. Although the quality is decidedly varied, it's a welcome change of pace and Cochrane generates plenty of chuckles playing up to the enthusiastic response.
More importantly, this light relief enforces his impression that no punchline is funnier than real life, inspired by such varied situations as his toddler's first erection, a friend's sex toy or an indelicate response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Interspersed among these yarns, there are darker moments involving his loved ones, hardly laugh a minute, though certainly involving. And every so often, as with an imaginary scenario of his being widowed, he manages to bridge comedy and tragedy with a single exquisite line. Tremendous stuff.
The Stand, Glasgow, 15th November 2010
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