Comedy: Thinking Allowed

Examining comedy that pokes the little grey cells

Old comics don’t retire, they just find new adventures. And by ‘old’, I simply mean comics that have been going for a while – comedians do have a bit of a magical ageless quality about them that only lets you have a guess at their years when they start talking about kids and grandkids in their sets. But that’s beside the point.

Dom Joly wrote a book about being a tourist in former war zones, Mark Thomas is constantly thinking up new ways to challenge the status quo, Mark Watson did the first 24 hour comedy show, and came up with a comedy concept a few years ago of a hotel filled with different funny ideas. And of course there was the bizarre majesty that produced the Edinburgh Fringe’s ‘The Wrestling’ twice, involving awesome names from comedy such as Brendan Burns, Nick Helm, Gemma Whelan, Pappy’s, Tom Rosenthal and many more – alongside actual wrestlers – with a loose narrative and a magic anarchy from the minds of Max and Ivan. So, when people ask; “Where do your ideas for your set come from?”, the question really should be, “where do they stop?”

With this is mind, it’s a great delight to see that Simon Munnery (the comedian Stewart Lee praises most highly) is in town having set himself quite the feat to perform a selection of the 19th Century Danish existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s writings, talk about them, and make them funny. And he can do it.

Simon Munnery is an innovator, an adventurer in the bizarre, with a remarkable history inspiring so many in comedy with his shows and curiosity. Sometimes he involves music, this time it’s a specific philosopher, he’s been described as an ‘avant garde comedy god’ and ‘the God particle of Alternative Comedy’ – there is no one else like Simon Munnery, and he epitomises the adventuring spirit of the comic on his journey through life asking ‘why’, ‘why not’, and just doing what comes to him with intelligence and good faith.

Comedy is more than stag do’s and Saturday night telly – which is not to say that entertaining both of these flitting audiences is not impressive. It’s about engaging and keeping the brain going. It’s quite something for Ken Dodd to remember all of his many hours of gags, but even more of a feat that he keeps writing them. What triggers a gag? The same thing that keeps you young, no matter what age you reach.

Simon Munnery Sings Soren Kierkegaard, Wednesday 11 February 2015, 8pm, £12, The Old Market, www.theoldmarket.com

Victoria Nangle
Follow me: @latestvicky