The Stand-up world of Jeremy Hardy

Standing up to repetition

Photo © R Jefferson, used with permission. Taken at Neptune Theatre gig.

Reports of live gigs

Jeremy did a benefit gig in Nottingham in September 2000, and graced his audience with the following pearls of wisdom, as a contributor recalls:

On ageing
“With Leonardo Dicaprio, when you take away the looks, what you're left with is… satisfaction”.

After a tirade on why Tony Blair is scary

“…and another reason he's so scary is that he's… just such a fucking scary bastard”.

Jeremy appeared live at the Neptune Theatre, Hanover Street, Liverpool on Saturday 3 March. Roger Jefferson went, and sent in this report (slightly edited):

"Jeremy did two stints of approx. 40 mins. starting at 20:15ish with a 20 minute break. His material was as pin sharp as you would expect sprinkled with bits and pieces I've heard on the Speaks To The Nation, News Quizzes and I'm Sorry programmess. His routine follows a rough pattern with diversions and digressions. I can't recount any specific bits but look hard for a live concert and GO where ever. This audience was sort of what you would expect, mostly middle class mostly 30s–40s with just a few demented wrinkles like me in their 50s. The language in the presentation was definitely more adult. "Excuse me if I don't take my fleece off but fuck me it's cold up here." I reckon the presentation was good. The use of extreme language was not offensive as it was in context rather than being the source of the humour. Everyone laughed so that was OK. There were no curtain calls, just a last Liverpudlian joke [a real classical joke!] told after he asked if it was OK to tell it "I'll see you in the bar" and then he walked off, much applause but the house lights came on and that was it.

"I suspect the gig was for the benefit of the Socialist Alliance as they are having a special gathering in Liverpool shortly, they got a number of plugs during the blast and they were collecting on the way out."

But Andy Hill writes:

"Yes, he’s very good, but every time I see him live they’re the same bloody jokes. If I hear:

1. Ladies dying from embroidery before 30

2. Pizza delivery boys going under mopeds (pureed baby food)

any more times, I’m going to scream.

The spectre of repetition haunts most stand-ups, I’m afraid!

It's nice that for Speaks to the Nation Jeremy collected some of his best News Quiz material; now we can have a permanent record of it!

Please send any gig reviews here.