Rob Jones
Lee Nelson brought his Serious Joker tour to St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. As a result a large crowd witnessed a 21st century mirth maker in full flight. An audience from Kyle aged 13 through to Linda and Dave, both 67, are brought in to play and the interaction between Lee and his legends (I.e. fans) is dynamite. One has the feeling that Nelson could make a night of it without a script and there would still be cause for comedy aplenty.
The star man just takes a look at at any and many unexpecting members of the public and he is away. Whether it is something simple like luminous laces or an outdated phone Lee can can muster up side-splitting hysteria. Family liaisons are the source of a lot of scripted material; and, everyone including himself can be a victim of banal situations via a contemporary chaotic and calamitous world.
Nelson places an icing of surrealism on top of crazy dysfunctional lifestyles. Our Lee takes a twist on the Jeremy Kyle generation and as opposed to the daytime TV Fuhrer – the chav champion Nelson uses ridicule because otherwise one could be drawn in to a state of despair. In essence we collapse in laughter at a wry take on the collapse of society!
Lee is full of witty one liners and countless ad libs. Every time he is the winner of words! Even though as with comedy gigs aplenty there are an abundance of punters who believe that they are rib-ticklers when in fact they are non-entities (who are immensely annoying!). The shouting out of dire drivel is quite frustrating to all around! The majority present have smiles on their faces but some have egg on their boat races – and, these goons deserve nothing less!
Lee extends his repertoire from sexual innuendo and breaks on through to sarcastic assessments of Brexit and Donald Trump. It is not all lowest common denominator fare as a scope of subjects are given the geezer view. However, a cheeky exterior carries Nelson through delicate areas when one thinks all of this could go badly wrong. Nelson is a man for all treasons and Sepp Blatter is not a fan which is also an approval rating for us mere mortals! There is a wider story here as the big fish with their fingers in the pies are shown to be the charlatans that they really are! Well done to this laughter creator (whose real guise is Simon Brodkin) for exposing such low lives!
Nelson has a stage presence and a laissez-faire attitude that in less capable hands could prove fruitless but what we have here is an abundance of ripe, close to the bone humour that is quite frankly ‘bananas’!
