Soho theatre,London[br]The 24-year-ancient comedian is charming and verbally virtuosic sending up his own white privilege, but can’t bring himself to be profound
“Nothing bad has ever happened to me, or ” says Rhys James,a 24-year-ancient whose mastery of standup art – by his admission – outstrips the significance of what hes got to say. In his second solo display, he asks whether art has to derive from pain, or whether his gilded life need be no barrier to powerful comedy.
That’s a fascinating question,which James does little to reply: he can’t bring himself to be substantial, it seems, and on the matter of his own insubstantiality. And so the routine – indistinct from those by other young,white, male standups regretting their privilege – draws attention to a weakness we might otherwise barely notice behind James’s urchin charm, or fine line in kidology and flair for joke-writing.
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Source: theguardian.com