“Saying intelligent things in a stupid way. Or stupid things in an intelligent way”. Such is how Rich Hall sums up his profession. I would sum up his barnstorming success at Friday’s live show as Charismatic. Leaping to the stage with a whoop like a Kentucky Tarzan, he has the audience in his hands with his mix of barfly gloom and good ta’ meet ya’ fella exuberance.
Now a semi-regular on our TV screens, Hall’s personal adaptation to Britain is part of his routine’s thrust. He describes the joy of discovering Cadbury’s as a divine revelation, reducing Hershey’s in his esteem as over sweetened shit made by the food company equivalent of a playground bully. “America’s saturated with shit”, he declares, “Good things come to those who wait, but shit turns up pretty much instantly”. Not that his appreciation of Britain is without critiscism. He describes leaving here during Gordon Brown’s reign “a man with the charm of a UPS van” and returning to discover his replacement by “a pair of gay antique store owners who don’t like each other”. The £800 billion plus national debt he calls “just the ticket price to see America’s $14 trillion debt”. But Hall knows his audience craves his gallows humour and flatters us with wry observations other crowds won’t appreciate. “Everyone in Ireland knows each other. They didn’t like it when I held up a newspaper headline that read Cork Man Drowns”.
Hall’s hollerin’ stage persona differs to his sharp but relaxed TV appearance. Shabbily dressed and swigging from a beer bottle, he wows the crowd by serenading Sarah the Accountant in the front row with a song called Do Anything You Want to the Girl, Just Don’t Hurt Me. He then turns his attention to Mike the Taxi co-ordinatior-cum-biker with a version of Big Bad John (“Big Bad Mike. He Rides a Bike”). It’s spellbinding stuff, and frequent applause signals our enthusiasm for him. He finishes on a song titled Crap Towns, describing every venue he’s visited as awful except ours. Oh, Rich, I bet you say that to all the impressionable young cities you visit. But we loved every minute of it.
Rich Hall
Saturday16th October 2010
The Corn Exchange
Words by Oliver Ford
