Thursday, September 13, 2007

Edinburgh Reviews #14: Stephen K. Amos

Stephen K Amos: More of Me
Company: Stephen K Amos
Venue: Pleasance – Beyond
Date: 23 Aug '07

Something of an old favourite at the Fringe by now, and deservedly so, Amos is a natural stand-up. He can do audience interaction, but doesn’t go overboard with it, his material is not only funny but genuinely interesting or affecting, and his style and technique is perfectly pitched.

The show was opened with a bizarre little character segment, where Amos donned a wig and pretended to be an American evangelical for a bit. I don’t really know what it added to the show, to be honest, despite his later assertion that it serves as some sort of warm up. In my experience as an audience member for comedy at the Fringe, certainly after 9pm, comics probably don’t need to do a lot of warming up the audience, at least not so overtly. People have likely already been to several shows by that stage in the day, and are quite ready to sit down and engage with a performer in whatever way is required of them. Or maybe that’s just me…

Anyway, once we got the real Stephen K. Amos, the show really got underway, and very good it was too. I would certainly have liked to see more (always a problem in the 1 hour slots given to many Edinburgh shows). I haven’t a lot more to say, really. Amos wasn’t revolutionary, or even particularly evolutionary, but his comedy didn’t feel old either. It’s just very accomplished.

4/5

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