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Warwick Arts Centre – Sunday, 11 November 2007

Russell Howard is to comedy what a bull is to a china shop.Ìý He charges at jokes head on, and you never know where he is going to go next.Ìý

Similar to listening to an excited child, Howard appears to be incapable of preventing any thought that enters his head from leaving his mouth.Ìý He jumps from joke to joke, story to story, in a totally unpredictable way, and it is absolutely hilarious.Ìý

Howard admitted during the show that he has ADD.Ìý His energy levels and general excitement were clear signs of this.Ìý There was never a moment when he wasn’t leaping around the stage, putting on a funny voice, or being completely over the top with his actions.Ìý He was easily sidetracked by himself, and this led to laugh after laugh.

Clearly influenced by the likes of Lee Evans, Howard’s performance was thrilling.Ìý He threw himself into his jokes, and was clearly enjoying himself.Ìý He was very physical, using exaggerated movements to emphasise characters.Ìý His interpretation of the Christmas his father told him he had no presents had me in tears.

I was impressed by just how much ad-libbing Howard did.Ìý A lot of the performance was material created purely by prompts from the audience.Ìý His ability to think on his feet was outstanding.Ìý His prepared material was fantastic and was so well performed that he gave the impression that the whole performance was off the cuff.

The only thing that took the shine off the evening slightly was that during his encore Howard decided it would be a good idea to play football, with 2 chairs and various audience members.Ìý It was funny initially, but I feel it went on for a bit too long.

Overall however, Howard’s performance is by far one of the funniest, and certainly one of the most original I have seen in a long time.Ìý Very highly recommended