11:32am Monday 30th April 2012
By Jonathan Wilkes
Claiming he almost died driving to the gig, Andrew Maxwell seemed full of bonhomie yelling “I don’t really care about the show, I’m alive”.
This lease of life made for an evening of boisterously affable stand-up: the first half relying heavily on audience interaction rather than his brutally-delivered opinionated topical commentary. Do not be mistaken: he is very clever at involving audiences, probably among the best, but it did seem to delay his more challenging comedy.
With capricious glee the mischievous Maxwell moved from audience involvement to satire to slapstick. His impression of an Eton-educated “big-chinned good bloke” was exquisite.
Maxwell asserted there are only four funny things in this world: falling over, defecating, sex and religion.
His intelligence, skill and intransigent conviction belies the first three. His idea for a cockney mosque and recent trip through America with fundamentalist Christians, Muslims and Creationists could provide material for an entire show about the fourth.
After his rather disappointing show, The Lamp, Maxwell has found form.
The Lights Are On is brimming with cheekiness, adroitness and confidence. It almost suffered from a common flaw in today’s stand-up, the mawkishly sincere conclusion, but one last routine about a certain unprintable sexual act ensured punters had something else to remember on the way home.
At his best with his opinionated and passionate comedy Andrew Maxwell can still have you in hysterics with nothing more than his haunting impression of a pit bull and its owner. There are some things you can never un-see.
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