- Review Date: 6 April 2024
- Venue: Leicester Square Theatre, London WC2
- Star Rating: ***
The man called Reginald D Hunter is back with another striking, enigmatic show title. The title refers to his mother Lucille’s phrase “It’s easy to see through shit. The hard part is pretending you haven’t.”
In his latest offering Hunter explores family dynamics – both from afar relating to his family back home in Georgia and closer to home via the revelation he is now a father. The audience breaks into applause but he begs them not to as “it’s not like that”! It’s a fascinating revelation indeed. All I’d say is it’s a pity it wasn’t elaborated upon as it’s quite an unusual tale and could have based quite a routine around it, a whole show even. Hunter elected not to and it’s his personal life so he’s every right not to. Yet, he brought it up and frequently has spoken in detail re personal family matters over the years.
Reginald D Hunter
I enjoyed the UK-USA cultural differences he acknowledged. There was a very funny response to comments from his USA family asking if the discord over Brexit had lead to shooting yet.
On the subject of shooting, whilst he was back in Georgia he got caught up in a shooting incident. Whilst all around him ducked for cover he didn’t. Years of ‘Anglicisation’ must have made him forget the automatic response to shootings, which is sadly probably second nature to many Americans.
There was some crude analogies as ever, although on this occasion, as is Hunter’s won’t it wasn’t done merely for sensationalism but to make a acerbic point re how he perceives the Conservative government have treated it’s citizens over the years.
There was a running joke re a number of dreams involving prominent African-Americans such as Kanye West, Will Smith, Lizzo and former President Barack Obama.
He referred to his annoyance at being called to speak on “African-American issues” by radio stations. He is reluctant to be seen as a spokesperson for all Black people, especially when he can’t even speak for all his own family. Plus, he has opinions on economics and politics, so why don’t they consult him for opinions on matters over than race?
There was the traditional “lights up” weird but hilarious public surveys he likes to conduct. Great fun but hard to see the point of them over than pure laughter. Or maybe Hunter has a secret side hustle as a Market Researcher specialising in only the most bizarre of questions!
He refers to his daughter saying he’s “not a jokey jokey comedian.” No denying that. It’s not Hunter’s bag really. That point was highlighted to an extent when someone in the audience heckled “P Diddy.” A clear reference to Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs current travails. Hunter heard it, smiled and carried on with his set. He wasn’t going to get distracted. Which is fine, but it might have been interesting to hear his take on the situation and maybe working on developing the more off the cuff, spontaneous element of his repertoire. Having said that the allegations are not a joking matter and unless responded to appropriately or with a well judged gag that doesn’t send the wrong signal it was probably best steered clear of. I think Hunter’s found himself in enough trouble in the past without straying into other minefields! For instance he mentioned Israel. The audience hushed, wondering what he was going to say … and he just moved on! Some topics are too hot for even Hunter to entertain.
Nevertheless Hunter delivered a very funny show in his customary thought provoking style. It was inimicably Hunter – thoughtful, personal, not mining traditional comedy fare and with plenty of big punchlines.
I’d hoped for a longer set, but it concluded after 45 minutes. Some of the aforementioned topics could have been explored in more depth to extend the show. With the support act having done 40 minutes the audience still got great value for money and with a show due in shortly after there was little room for going over time.
Al Porter
I’d not heard of Al Porter before and wasn’t expecting him as support act on the night, but what a fabulous surprise opener he turned out to be. He brought the house down with his gags and first rate audience banter. Porter’s from Tallaght, Dublin and co-incidentally he happened to engage in banter with a Dubliner sat in the front row with his wife. He was a good sport becoming the butt of many of Porter’s jokes. He skillfully brought a number of audience members into the show but it was all good fun and taken in good spirit. Porter is a very funny man and brought good natured, rapid fire jokes and brilliantly involved the audience in his extremely entertaining and original performance.
He had a bag full of gags and literally old school (in a modern sense) gags from his school days growing up on a tough council estate. His early disclosure of being gay was quite pertinent to his performance and a number of his jokes landed superbly because of this.
Al Porter
He certainly seemed to have had a colourful upbringing with such a rich variety of characters including priests, school girls having babies and taxi drivers.
There was a sombre moment at one point which was somewhat out of kilter with the rest of the show but was said in all seriousness and wasn’t as initially expected the set up for another joke. This related to a 5 year period when he was effectively cancelled in Ireland resulting in his career completely stalling. He didn’t elaborate at all on why but just urged people learn from their mistakes and hoped that people could be forgiving of one another’s misdemeanours. The gear change from “jokey jokey” comedian to seriousness was almost Hunter like, but I admired his honesty. Whatever the merits or not of the cancellation it is a great shame that Porter was absent from the stand up comedy scene for such a long time.
Hunter mentioned in his set that his management offered Porter to him (no, not in that way) as support act for his show. He looked into the matter that got him cancelled and was fine to have him as his opening act.
That was very generous of Hunter as many might have not been so accommodating. Porter was the perfect foil for the more thoughtful, introspective comedy of Hunter. Porter deserves to go places and I’m sure he will do. Do check him out if you get the opportunity to do so on tour or on television, as I’m sure it won’t be too long before he’s getting booked again for TV work.
This was a tremendous night of comedy from Reginald D Hunter and Al Porter.
© Tiemo Talk of The Town
Links:
- Black Out Theatre Nights: To Black Out Or Not To – That is the Question? Tiemo Opinion piece – 03/04/2024
- For The Culture Review, Lyric Theatre Hammersmith Review – 13/03/2024
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