Brighton Fringe 2016
Adam Vincent – Judgemental (work in progress)
Adam Vincent
Genre: Comedy
Venue: Laughing Horse @ The Quadrant
Festival: Brighton Fringe
Low Down
Adam Vincent “throws comedy pasta at a wall, to see what sticks”, in the lead up to Edinburgh Festival. The theme is how judgemental the human race are, and the disgusting levels we stoop to in order to earn a living.
Review
A fifty minute work-in-progress from Adam Vincent, looking at his career as a nurse, how judgmental he sees himself to be, and how he has no friends. The slightly misanthropic comedian began his set talking about his exotic place of living (Bedford), and the fact that he has no wish to be there. Thus, we entered into the troubled, prejudiced and pleasantly jaded mind of our entertainment for the evening.
Adam was not afraid to get graphic with the human anatomy, mentioning ‘vagina’ several times in the first ten minutes. The audience had been warned by their host beforehand that the show would not be PC, and not having paid for it, who were we to complain? A fragmented start to the show left a strange atmosphere, and possibly more of a “listening” audience than Adam deserved. There were, however, regular laughs brought on by his cool, calm and collected delivery. Although a work in progress, the set would have benefitted in Adam getting behind his punches a bit more, which would have eased his rhythm in delivering them. However, with an audience so obviously enjoying themselves, but making such little noise, it must have a been a hard call for Adam to make in those bright lights, and self-doubt may have been inevitable in the throws of comedy.
Adam’s writing is such, that I was left with a feeling he should give himself more credit. Highlights of the set included Adam’s brave matter-of-factness about his racial prejudice towards a Chinese acupuncturist (in a good way); we were all thinking it. Also captivating, was his ability to paint a picture in the mind of his audience in a way that, although extremely graphic, did not make me recoil, but rather left me wanting to know more about his career as a nurse. The blunt absurdity of high end vegetables such as (very)white garlic, looking like it had just come from a klan meeting, making the brown onions feel uncomfortable, was a stroke of genius. Once these gags have been tightened up, Adam has on his hands an interesting and unique set.
I would definitely recommend this show to fellow misanthropes, Adam Vincent has a wonderfully weird take on life. Albeit a graphic one.
