Elis James bounds onto the stage with wonderful energy and a poetic way with language; there is something wonderfully friendly about this Welshman that gives you the feeling that rather than seeing a comedian, you are in a conversation with a particularly hilarious friend. His set documents his first times with a great many things, and his long term obsession with certain ITV sports presenters.Elis lacks the sort of overarching structure and narrative that can feel so refreshing and interesting in comedians; there was no sense of a story runnning throughout the entire show, and little in the way of returning to previous gags. However the tales he told, filled with lovingly described characters, were hilarious and heartwarming. There was less of a sense of trying to shock the audience- which can often be rather annoying as shock value can only go so far- and instead a nice focus on just telling a hilarious anecdote, such as the time he choked on a sweet at a pantomime or the when his friends led a whip-round to get him his first kiss.However, a large portion of his act ended up being handed over to a rather infuriating rant aimed at us, the audience. Critiquing us for thinking this was the Edinburgh Listening Festival and not laughing enough at his material, what started off as a funny display of a comedian’s desperation turned into something infuriating as he continued to berate us as a particularly unpleasant audience. Considering everybody in the audience paid good money to come and watch him at this festival, this felt like an incredibly ungrateful act. He told us we had been ‘an audience’, no compliments whatsoever, and it is this sort of viciousness that makes me wish I could critique him more. But his show was brilliant, and he deserves to be seen. Just make sure you laugh.
