Tony Law is an irrepressible force; a man who pushes back the known frontiers of silliness, a clown of cosmic proportions. Dressed like an extra from Doctor Who in the seventies with two streaks of electric blue on his face and his fingers decked out with mini torches, his appearance is only a slight intimation of the kind of zany, surreal personality that Law unleashes on his audience.
Nonsense Overdrive is a show about space in which Law admits, or rather boasts, that he has read absolutely no books on the subject. What we have instead is an intense package of non-sequiturs, jokes without punchlines, silly voices and fantastically mad ramblings, all of which are hilarious. One particularly excellent bit that reduced the entire room to tears of laughter was about the feminist leanings of his precocious four-year old daughter. Enraged by the objectification of women that underscores every Barbie doll, she decides to destroy the toy and create her own responsible role model for femininity. Enter Normal Girl, whose superpower lies in her ability to tolerate everyday sexism. This bit alone is a testament to the fantastically weird tangents Law can take and is pretty representative of the whole show.
The routine does lag somewhere around the halfway mark with two long anecdotal bits that, perhaps restricted by the unfamiliar weight of narrative in his set, lack the intensity of his other jokes. For the first time it was possible to take your eye off Law and look around the room. This was partly saved, though not completely, when Law explained that this kind of tedious anecdotal material is currently all the rage. It will get him away from the comedy nerds who make up his audience and take him straight into the stadiums. To make this point however Law has to lose significant momentum in his set.
Aside from this Law proves that he is a master of the craft of stand up. Making people laugh never looked so easy.
