Aurie Styla’s Green Agenda

• Date: 26^th March 2022
• Venue: Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush, London W12
• Comedian: Aurie Styla
• Rating: *****Shepherds Bush is All Green

The cacophony of sound that greeted Aurie Styla’s entrance onto the Bush Hall stage could have landed him in trouble for breaking residential noise levels in Shepherds Bush. It was more akin to a rock star’s entrance. The energy was on another level. Perhaps many present hadn’t been to a show for such a long time due to the pandemic. Or more likely it had more to do with this show effectively being a homecoming for West Londoner Styla on his national ‘Green’ tour.

Aurie Styla

In this sold out night Styla reflected on how the pandemic had impacted him, his family and those around him. He reminded people that we had been, still are in fact, living through history – with Covid-19, not to mention Brexit, George Floyd and the Ukraine-Russia war. For those reasons it was important for people to pay close attention to what’s been going on in the country and wider world.

A show about the green agenda may not be many people’s idea of a fun Saturday night out, but high on Aurie Styla’s green agenda was not so much the future for the environment, it was more about creating the right environment, in the here and now, for laughter, happiness and reflection.

Covid-19

For a show strong on Covid-19 lockdown reflections, it was fitting that this show took place in the week that marked the 2 year anniversary of the first lockdown on 23 March 2020. Styla amusingly poked fun at the juxtaposition of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statesmanship at his Number 10 Press conferences set against his plumy voice and unkempt hair. This, on top of the Government’s response to the pandemic, didn’t give Styla any confidence in Mr Johnson and his government. However he had found an innovative way to make listening to the PM more palatable which featured one of his male relatives. This was one of a number of lovely family orientated jokes. Other highlighted members were his talented 9 year old maths wiz nephew and his obdurate 90 year old grandmother’, who’s unusual strategy for avoiding Covid as well as celebrating her 90^th birthday were a real joy. Was she going to deny herself a party in the middle of a pandemic? No comment. Not whilst the Police are busy issuing retrospective party fines!

Mental Health

Unexpectedly the show took a more serious turn, in topic only, without losing the entertainment fans had come out for. The centrepiece of the show focused on Styla’s interest in and technique for maintaining his mental health and well-being and in particular how it’s so different, arguably culturally much harder, for men to open up about their mental health, especially to other men or health professionals. The analogy he drew was particularly funny, especially given the absolute kernel of truth in it, albeit probably exaggerated for comedic effect.

In general, Styla asserted, not unsurprisingly, that women tend to talk more about their issues and worries, whereas men tend to talk about anything but what’s really bothering them – be that their health, work, finances or relationships. That’s the difference. It made me think that a way forward is for men to aim to try getting beyond the more frivolous or serious but non-personal conversations, to seriously enquiring about their friends, family and work colleague’s well-being. To go beneath the veneer of ‘I’m all right Jack’ to probe to see if Jack really is alright. As men we like to pretend all is well and don’t open up when things really are going very badly. That doesn’t help them – hence the far higher suicide rates and the fact it’s mainly men opening up and causing the madness we see here and especially in the USA with mass shootings and the police brutality that goes on and that’s just the extreme end of things of course, yet that’s the most brutal, fatalistic, highly visible outcome that not opening up can lead to. A lot of mental health damage* is going on for men who don’t even reach such extremes of behaviour. You could argue that Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock at the 94th Oscars Awards Ceremony, the very next night after this show, was a classic (albeit violent and shocking) example of what can happen when a man doesn’t open up. Everything can just explode.

Aurie Styla

Without revealing too much, Styla was frank about the benefits he’s found in regular therapy sessions and how he gained a greater understanding of the process the more he went – including understanding why he was the one paying yet doing most of the talking! There were jokes galore amongst the seriousness, but nonetheless the message came across loud and clear that it’s good to talk and nothing to fear from seeking therapy and opening up to therapists, counsellors, friends, family or work colleagues for that matter. The importance of this was best summed up when he stated that he placed the same value on mental well being as physical health. It’s akin to car maintenance. To keep your car ticking over nicely its best to have it serviced at regular intervals. He encouraged men watching to take note. Physical and mental health move in tandem and if men want both to last as long as they can, they need to be well serviced and looked after. Not sure if that sounds right, but you know what I mean!

Talking of two moving in tandem, the ‘mandem’ gym changing room story was one of the, no pun intended, stand out tales of the night and had the audience in stitches.

The Green Agenda

The green agenda in the environmental sense did actually come up as Styla disclosed that he drives an electric vehicle, purchased long before the fuel crisis and exorbitant petrol price rises experienced in recent months. He wasn’t preachy about it but had been urging friends and family to consider the benefits of going green for some time. I guess he’s having the last laugh now!

On the same theme, he mentioned the joys of country living, the quietness of his Bedfordshire village compared to when he lived in London, when his normal background noise was the hubbub of people and police/ambulance sirens.

Aurie Styla at Bush Hall

Aside from making people laugh and giving people a good night out, the emphasis was on the importance of men opening up and the belief that laughter is therapy. For him the therapeutic gain was getting in touch with his true, authentic self. The audience witnessed the result in this eponymously titled show ‘Green’, a reference to his real surname.

March 2022 marked 12 years for Styla as a stand up comedian. His experience and comedy credentials shone through in this stellar show that had it all – jokes galore, politics, topical material, reflections on the pandemic, great audience interactions, plus an overriding theme of looking after one’s mental health.

Aurie Styla’s real surname may be green, but this show demonstrated that he was anything but when it came to this polished, virtuoso performance.

© Tiemo Talk of the Town

B&W Photo at Bush Hall courtesy of Frozen Energy Photography

* This is a subject covered in Ryan Calais Cameron’s new play ‘For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy’ at the Royal Court Theatre, London running from 31/03/2022 – 30/04/2022.

Links:

1. Will Smith’s Oscars Breakdown – Tiemo article – 31st March 2022

Thank you for reading this article. We hope you enjoyed it and that if you did, will post a comment and/or share it with others who may also appreciate the chance to read it and comment. Simply scroll right down to the very end of the page and you’ll find the ‘Comments’ section.

If you wish to receive regular updates as soon as new Blogs are posted or join our mailing list please complete the form below.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Mobile

Message(required)

Please send me your new blog posts

Please send me Tiemo newsletters

Submit

Δ