After last year's storming Edinburgh performance in All of Me, Stephen K Amos returns with another great comedy outing in More of Me.
This is clearly a well thought-out and carefully constructed show, but Stephen's skill in handling the audience makes it all look supremely effortless. You'd be forgiven for thinking that he's just popped out on a whim for a nice chat with a couple of hundred people who happen to be sat there, keeping them in stitches all the while.
Starting with a character-based skit, he appears as the Reverend Jesse Jones, an American hell-fire & brimstone preacher who's no stranger to a bit of sin himself. Quick-witted one liner put-downs are mixed with perceptive but friendly piss-takes of a couple of (admittedly deserving) victims in the audience. He keeps coming back to the same people throughout the show, drawing them and their imagined foibles ever-deeper into the comedy world he's weaving for us.
This warms the crowd up nicely, and gets them onside really quickly, letting him slip back into his own persona as the black guy who grew up in the 1970's Midlands to the delights of 'Love thy Neighbour' on the telly, and parents who messed with his head by telling him he was a Jehovah's Witness (saves on the Christmas pressies apparently).
The show proceeds at a brisk pace, taking in a bit of gentle religious, political and cultural humour along the way. The final third of the set takes him further into a very personal space, where he discusses how he needed to be more honest with himself and those around him as he grew older. This was a central theme of last year's show where came out on stage as being gay, and this year he talks about the recent documentary he made for Channel 4, Batty Man, going to Jamaica to successfully confront homophobic song-writers.
So in the end, a funny and intelligent show about the meaning of personal truth and honesty. Stephen K Amos plays with his audience like a kitten with a ball of wool it's all good knock-around stuff, and you'll leave with a grin all over your face job done!
