This is a very funny hour of stand-up from a bearded man. With an impressive eye bulge and great stage presence Jerrod builds a rapport with the audience very shortly after entering the stage. He may be, as he says, “another white middle-class left-wing comedian in a checkered shirt”, but this makes this hour no less amusing or engaging.
A very relaxing no-stress hour of comedy.
Introducing his “second” debut Edinburgh stand-up hour Jerrod tells the audience that he was criticised at last year’s Fringe by reviewers for being “inauthentic” and pledges as a response to give us an hour of lies and mistruths. I do not know Phil Jerrod. I cannot, having spent a mere hour in his presence, pass judgement on the truth or untruth of the tales he tells about his life, from his days studying at the “Marxist universities” in order to become a good Middle-Class liberal who lives in Brighton, and his observations on married life and the lies his parents told him. But I can say that he was very funny.
He begins his show complaining of the tendency amongst fellow comics to treat stand-up as a tale of a journey to an epiphany. Needless to say, hypocrite that he claims to be, he disregards his own complaint and uses his show to paint a tale of self-realisation since he has reached the age of 40 (actually 37) in this most terrible of years, 2016. In doing so he appears to lay himself bare, figuratively, for the audience. Either he is a very talented actor, or in this show he fails utterly to achieve his goal of spiting reviewers by coming across as “inauthentic”. The pace of laughs slowed down at times but overall this show provides a very relaxing no-stress hour of comedy.
