Jimmy Carr is a famous TV host, actor, writer and tax dodger. Tonight however, Jimmy Carr trumps these monikers and puts his best attribute to the forefront: Comedian. He self-describes his set as “2 hours of me and approximately 3 jokes every minute”, well; he’s done a better job already than any critic of summarising his stand up show ‘Gagging Order’. Jimmy Carr is very good at taking the piss out of his own, and very public, misfortunes, but is even better at ripping it from the hecklers. Ladies and gentlemen, take your place on the edge of your seat and welcome to the stage, the hardest working man in comedy: Jimmy Carr.
The Edinburgh Playhouse seats about 3000 people, which is an awful lot of purchased tickets, yet so many of the crowd appear to be sceptical of Jimmy’s talent tonight. Hecklers, abusive Scots and Bank Holiday Drunks make themselves very vocally known, evidently under the impression that taking on a professional comedian in a battle of wits is a fight they can win. How silly of them: if you choose to participate this evening, Jimmy Carr will hilariously take you down.
Obviously, Jimmy Carr is very clever, and lends his intellect to every witticism and anecdote delivered this evening. It takes Jimmy’s art of looking at any given situation in a completely different way to the average man, to produce the best puns like he does. He is very fast, intelligent and extremely dapper; only Jimmy Carr can add sophistication to a cock joke! It’s this elegant delivery of crude material that makes it so fall-off-your-seat funny, and the only style of comedy expected of him.
If Jimmy’s below-the-belt gags weren’t descriptive enough, he’s got some animations lined up to really imprint the punchline on to your brain. Not for the light-hearted or easily offended, the animations portray Jimmy’s mind at work, and finish the jokes off immaculately. Straying from his standard stand up doesn’t stop there either, as he invites audience members on to the stage to take part in his dirty sitcom: it’s a good job he’s picked some good sports for the sketch as hilarity pursues yet again.
Jimmy Carr has his haters in it is clear, however, they are over-ridden by all the other people who are in support of his work here this evening. Love him or hate him however, his jokes are undeniably fast, innovative and very, very good: try and find another comedian that can fill two hours with original material, and still have the jocularity to slam down a heckler if needed.
By Susan Ford
Punchline 