Surreal Canadian stand up Tony Law.
Irreverent comedian Tony Law had a packed audience at the Y Theatre on Saturday 16th November in hysterics, as his unusual brand of mad comedy hit the spot.
Granted it took a while for me personally to get to grips with Law’s mad-capped observations on life, but when you go with it, it’s very, very funny stuff.
Opening with a grand laser show, and finger lasers to boot, the stripy-clad Canadian quickly got into the thick of it, ensuring us he doesn’t ‘own a laptop’ and that he writes his material on ‘the back of a cigarette packet’, before launching into why his younger self was a ‘dickhead’, and how he has grown up due to the birth of his two ‘Viking twins, Thora and Atticus.’
During these few opening gambits, his self-awareness came out, noting that the lukewarm crowd were probably thinking: “I like Tony on those panel shows, what’s all this shouty bollocks?!” These little extras made the gig feel very personal and even more intimate in the 303-seated theatre.
It was very funny, and along with some further observations on the type of crowd we were, the type of comedy nerds who see 20/30 comedy shows a year, rather than the general public, who’d see 1 or 2 a year, pay £65 a ticket to see a ‘fat bloke in a suit jacket walk backwards and forwards along a stage’, and how he craved for that level of pay and success. It was refreshing and hysterical to hear his inner thoughts in such a way.
There’s no argument that ‘ToneZone’ had the audience in the palm of his hands as he switched through all manner of hilarious accents (South African, American, North London, Manchester, the nearest he could get to Leicester), and reached the crescendo of his hour-and-a-half show; the deep space.
What begins as a subtle tale of attending a dinner party with his wife transcends into a puppet-based, slideshow song and dance. It’s incredible and truly comes from the leftfield; with audience members guiding ‘SpaceBear’ and his love ‘OwlCat’, as Law’s wife too join the fray.
He needs to be checked into a mental institution sooner rather than later, and his humour may take a while to settle in, but Tony Law is a hilariously, strange comedian, whose show (Nonsense Overdrive), needs to be seen to be truly believed.
4.5/5 (that’s if you need a rating)
