Gavin Webster is on a mission. Not the sort of mission that leads you to dedicate your life to curing cancer or bringing relief to those suffering in poverty, but rather the sort of mission that takes you to the Edinburgh Fringe determined to make people laugh about the political views they’re too guilty to hold. Webster’s crusade is designed to provide an alternative to the kind of right-on, hyper-liberal comics that populate Daily Telegraph readers’ nightmares, and initially sounds like an invitation to an “I’m not racist, but”- style hour of ranting. Thankfully, Webster is not a Trojan horse being used by Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown and his targets include overenthusiastic charity organisers, bankers and Bono rather than asylum seekers.
For the most part, Gavin Webster seems an astute and witty comedian, and the central gambit of the show’s theme has certainly paid off. Comfortably lo-fi in the unassuming surroundings of the Stand Two,singing the U2 songs to his own lyrics instead of paying for the license to use the original, Webster adapted well to his audience and managed to set up a good relationship with the crowd.
The set was well written, and it allowed for some healthy digression from the main theme into more unconventional subjects such as Newcastle’s response to 9/11. Still, Webster didn’t always manage to alchemise his chosen topic from lead into comedy gold. Neither Bono nor Bob Geldof are exactly fresh meat for misanthropic comics and, to an extent, this hampered sections of the show which should have been highlights.
It’s difficult, too, to tell where Webster’s bitter persona ends and his desire to be contrarian for the sake of it begins, and there are parts when he seemed to confuse misanthropic comment with moaning. Still, his performance got better as it went along and Webster had the audience fully captured by the end of the show. Webster worked well with material that had the potential to be incredibly dry, and livened up his comedic trolling with colourful storytelling and witty anecdotes.
Overall, Webster provided an impressive and challenging show, though it might have been improved if he’d decided to play to his strengths.
