Tom Stade calls his show The Essential as it contains topics and themes that he believes are international and integral to many different cultures and lifestyles, thus maximising its appeal and comedic potential. These topics include travelling, parenthood, alcohol and that most common of sites the world over, the meat van.
This alone shows Stade’s understanding of how to make American comedy travel: all too often comics from across the pond think that because we speak the same language we will understand what they are saying. While this runs the risk of being banal or vague, Stade’s relaxed, cowboy-off-duty show style and innate ability to spot comedic potential in both everyday and rarer situations gives this show a strong foundation. Stade then builds upon this using his own prodigious talent as a live performer and comic: a naturally funny person, the audience was wiping away tears of laughter within the first five minutes.
Stade is also fearless in his jokes and what he decides to include in his show. ‘I know how you feel, Scottish people’, he says at one stage. ‘England used to own my country too. But then we were brave enough to LEAVE.’ He also walks across other comedy tightropes such as bad parenting, marital problems and how having a child interrupts a couple’s sex life. While other comedians might be left high and dry having talked about these things, Stade’s big, inclusive personality makes you feel like you’re all involved in the jokes and can all relate to the issues, whether you can or not. It’s not a comedian vs the audience, it’s the comedian and the audience together, laughing at the same funny moments in life that have been focused on and amplified by Stade’s abilities as a comic and as a stage performer. A well written and very funny comedy show and one well worth seeing.
