Live Comedy

Simon Evans: The Work Of The Devil

Simon Evans's last tour, Genius 2.0, provided an hilarious analysis of the departure of any visible sign of intelligence from modern life. But his new show raises the stakes, with his usual excoriating views of a world on fire - given a perspective shift due to personal revelations that have turned his world upside down this year.

Simon Evans is one of the country's best-loved stand-up comedians, with a loyal fan base who greatly appreciate his intelligent and independent scrutiny of the modern world. His tongue-in-cheek, often rueful attachment to traditionalism, and his scepticism towards the claimed achievements of progressive politics and modernist aesthetics, have set him apart from many of his contemporaries. As well as making him a firm favourite on the usual platforms - Live At The Apollo, the Edinburgh Festival and the corporate circuit in particular - these qualities allow him to provide much-needed latitude and offer a diversity of views on TV and radio programmes - from BBC One's Question Time to Radio 4's The News Quiz. He has also written and presented five series of the ground breaking economics/comedy hybrid Simon Evans Goes To Market, on that same network.

But this year, Evans has adapted to unexpected personal revelations of a quite extraordinary nature, and used them to re-examine his entire 23-year career in comedy to date. And in so doing he has, in the words of Chortle's Jay Richardson - "Exceeded what seemed to be his full potential."

Given that this full potential had already been enough to earn a coveted five-star review from The Scotsman's Kate Copstick in 2017, with his show Genius - "A Masterclass" - this would seem to be a bold claim. But it is one that Evans made good on, night after night, at this year's Fringe.

For some of its impact, the show does indeed rely on the full force of the revelation that defines the second half - and that retroactively reconfigures everything that has come before. Evans is already adapting to the fact that many people are coming to see the show for a second time, and reporting that it is if anything even more satisfying second time around.