Al Murray, Metro Radio Arena Newcastle
by Miles Morgan, Evening Chronicle
REGULAR stand-up-comedy fans will know that if you reserve a front-row seat you are unlikely to leave with your blushes spared.
And when the act on stage is Al Murray, Britain’s least politically-correct pub landlord, you are just asking for trouble, as many discovered on the first of his two nights at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena.
He spared no mercy as he eyed up his victims, all of whom avoided eye contact in the vain hope he’d leave them alone.
Within five minutes he had labelled one couple Shrek and Fiona and teased another about their bedroom antics – made worse by the fact the girl’s parents were sat next to them.
Perrier Award winning Murray, who in 2007 came 16th in Channel Four’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, did not shy away from giving his colourful opinion on everything from the Olympics to Indian call centres to Gordon Brown’s one working eye.
The most memorable moments were the ones that were truly off the cuff, such as when a couple walked in 15 minutes late: “That’s what happens when you let her park the car!”
Or when a young man in the front row told him he was a model. Murray’s comical response contained so many expletives that it cannot be written here, but you get the picture!
As a huge fan of comedians such as Murray, Michael McIntyre and others who focus on good old-fashioned English humour, I looked forward to this with great anticipation.
Considering Murray is a descendant of Vanity Fair author William Makepeace Thackeray and won a British Comedy Award for his ITV Happy Hour show, I had high hopes.
Overall I enjoyed the show and loved his irreverent take on aspects of everyday life.
He has spent 15 years perfecting the art of his pub landlord creation and it is in peak satirical condition.
Murray has come a long way since his early years as a teenage drummer and as a performer in the Oxford Revue while studying history at Oxford University.
He received critical acclaim in 2004 for Al Murray’s Road to Berlin, a Discovery Channel series in which he interviewed survivors from the Second World War (from both sides) and parachuted out of a plane with veterans to commemorate the war.
It is refreshing to learn that his interests go beyond the stage and spotlight of a comedy arena and whether it is stand-up, a documentary, satire or even cooking for Gordon Ramsey, Murray is worth tuning into or, if you are lucky, enjoying a pint with!
Al Murray has just announced he will also be performing at Sunderland Empire on October 8.
