Glasgow Comedy Festival
Liam Williams: Capitalism, Tron Theatre
Marianne Gunn
Four stars
Although a political movement might be the name of the cerebral show, the format is much more physical with satirical homage to the film Fight Club. Liam Williams sees himself as a depressive, Kinder Bueno-chomping, left-wing activist, although his "activism" often results in a more passive approach. With a distinctly impressive vocabulary and high-brow references, Williams draws on his own life experience (whether at liberal North London parties or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and only once did he tailor his content for the more parochial crowd (the Hampstead Heath bathing pools became Loch Ness, with his quick - although geographically-challenged - revisionism).
The young comedian from Leeds, who has a penchant for self-loathing, has been described as "the Philip Larkin of comedy" an epithet which seems to have stuck and drags him into some dark places of his psyche. The conceit of having his own Tyler Durden alter-ego takes the set away from the political sphere into a more internal one. The physical culmination of this is both awkward and satisfying, as Williams guesses some audience members may be empathising with the urge to attack. His World Cup song was definitely too long in the tooth (and the England slant was a bit of a miss too) but this was masterfully glossed over by Williams recounting his Edinburgh reviews (and, perhaps more humorously, the online comments).
His set is a slick one, although my Glasgow Comedy Festival gripe that comedians are on their last legs with the previous year's material still stands. Whether he broke up with his girlfriend on Friday or not - and missed his train connection - remains a mystery, but he does appear to be a comedian in need of a holiday.
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