Simon Bird: Debrief

[up_the_hampipe]

Apparently Simon Bird has released a new stand-up special on All4. He hasn't performed stand-up in years, and this special is performed in front of an empty theatre. The articles about it say that it's already out, but it doesn't appear to be yet, anyway it'll probably be here at some point in the next 24 hours https://www.channel4.com/programmes/simon-bird-debrief

[Utter Shit]

Will have a look at this today. A few of his sets from the Chortle student stand-up competitions are on YouTube, one of them in particular is fantastic.

https://youtu.be/TfJI11NoHCM

[An tSaoi]

DEBRIEFCASE WANKER

[up_the_hampipe]

This certainly isn't bad, considering he's not done stand-up in many years, nor has he ever done an extended solo show to my knowledge. The lack of audience is actually key to the kind of material he wants to do. Some of it is clever and could have done with an audience there, but other parts are just a rant on the state of things right now. Some if it hits home, other parts are a bit like the Nish Kumar/John Oliver style of punchline-lacking incredulousness. As I say, the whole thing is pretty good for what it is, but maybe he should have waited to hone it.

[Captain Z]

Watched it. Enjoyed it. Nice to see this audience-less experiment done while the opportunity exists. Seemed quite tight, I wouldn't have batted an eyelid if that was an end-of-tour DVD performance.

Hate to have to point it out, but it feels like Stewart Lee was a major inspiration. The 'I can do jokes, I just choose not to' line was almost verbatim.