Showreel 2011

More Robert White videos

After graduating in music, Robert White spent eight years doing various jobs before trying comedy in 2004. He was finalist in the Hackney Empire New Act Of The Year competition in 2006 and in 2010 won the Malcolm Hardee award for comic originality at the Edinburgh Festival.

Malcolm Hardee Awards Gig
Live Review
Highlight Camden

Tricky thing about anarchy – it can be quite hard to organise.

Malcom Hardee achieved it at The Tunnel and Up The Creek by being the conduit for the audience; a shambolic Lord of Misrule who said what they were thinking when he admitted the weird and wonderful new acts he was introducing ‘could be great; could be shit’ And although his compering skills were minimal, he had superhuman charm, and a willingness to do anything for a laugh.

That ambiance was largely lacking in this gig in his name – part tribute night, part showcase for acts championed by the awards set up to honour him.

Suitably disorganised compere Bob Slayer’s heart was in the right place – wandering into the audience for his links, subverting the big showbiz intros and downing a couple of pints in one – but he was largely lacking empathy for the room. His form of chaos involves creating an awkward atmosphere, with long pregnant pauses and creepily soliciting kisses from the women. His attitude was less Hardee’s dismissive ‘fuck it’ and more a ‘fuck you’, and it’s a big difference.

Hardee also encouraged sharp-witted heckling, but opening act Robert White showed no such grace. Whenever a punter got a laugh from a smart-arse reply to a question he posed, he’d bite back with an inelegant C-bomb. And ‘I will rape you’ is a constant threat to any dissenters.

White won the Malcolm Hardee Award for comic originality at this year’s Fringe, though if you considered some of the innuendos from his set – such as ‘Get your hands off my organ!’ – originality might not be the first word that springs to mind.

However it’s his nervously effervescent delivery – a gushing stream of puns and musical stings, transmitted through the static interference of his Asperger’s-syndrome twitchiness – which is what makes him stand out.

The set is obsessed with sex and orifices, with audience participation revolving around his predatory advances, though it is more rewarding when it raises its sights above the belt. White’s a good punster, and a talented improviser, able to ad lib a song in response to a minor audience disturbance – and these talents can surely be put to better use than making himself a 21st century Julian Clary. But the jumpy energy of the set is compelling.

Second act was Lewis Schaffer. You’ve heard of the concept of the self-hating Jew, now meet the self-destructing one.

With his fast-talking Brooklyn patter, his shtick is to belittle the Brits, thus pandering to the audience’s modest opinion of their own country while playing up to their stereotype of the arrogant, ignorant, loud-mouthed Yank. It’s a combustible mix, flirting with the risk that the crowd will hate him, yet tempered with the revelations that he’s a loser, too – displaced from home and unable to make a success of his career.

It goes down well. There are some strong jokes there, and the relentless rhythm of his tirade pushes the material hard. But then he loses confidence in it, and starts to question himself, becoming openly exasperated at a set that was actually going well. He ploughs on, again with some solid writing, but the wobble broke the spell and it’s a struggle to end anything like as strong as he started, even though the manipulative final gag is viciously funny. But there seems to be something in him that enjoys that stuggle, so the entertainment comes in watching him teeter.

Malcolm Hardee’s old buddy, now the voice of the stomach in the Yakult ads, Arthur Smith closed the show, with a routine that didn’t exactly prove a boost for flagging energy levels. As expected, he trudged through a selection of tried-and-tested old gags – plus a couple of great new ones too, especially the one concerning the Prime Minister’s nadgers.

Tiring of this, he decided to lull us into somnolence with a little poetry and a soporifically dull story backed by a suitably languid soundtrack. This might have been wonderfully subversive had the room not already been feeling low on energy. In fact it simply presented him with more of an uphill struggle (this seems to be a recurring word for the night) when he wanted to inject a bit of life into things with his version of ‘Arthur Smith’ And His Amazing Dancing Bear.

Still, if there’s one thing guaranteed to get an audience going – still after all these years – it’s The Greatest Show On Legs, the alternative cabaret troupe Hardee formed with Martin Soan at the beginning of his – let’s call it a career. Soan returned with the infamous balloon dance, while Chris Lynam ended the night with his personal Fireworks Night special, placing the Roman candle where the packet don’t advise.

Always a blast and, by all normal wisdom, that would be the end of the show, but Slayer blethered absent-mindedly on for a good five minutes apropos of nothing, ending on a whimper rather than a bang(er) – but strangely appropriate for this frequently moribund night.

Brilliant!

Brian Damage, September 2010

Re: My review - People keep asking me how I can do comedy and be so good having Aspergers syndrome. They comment on my confidence and seeming social ability in such tricky circumstances. Well the truth is that all my skills with people on stage are put on, practised and learned , they do not come naturally. This learning has taken time and has got to the point now where i storm many rooms and do well and very well consistently 99.999999% of the time. But for all this i still have aspergers. The autistic trap to see things as a simplistic choice between yes and no, or choice between continue and stop, got to me at the above gig - like a rabbit in the headlights - as i focussed on the fact that a reviewer was in (having never been told before when they were) and my mind decided that , in a split second, it was all lost. So i abandoned the show even before my first joke, a thing i have not done before and will not do again. This was a one in a million thing and I am very sorry for it. But knowing how I am and that it is a thing that is just in me, what am i suppossed to do except move on to do as well as i can at the next gig ? I cannot put my mind on or worry about something i cannot change! So this i did as i went to smash the next spot at old rope, with new material, where just a few moments earlier i couldn't even get a word out of the show i had put years into. This is a one off, an anommolly and something to occour once in a blue moon. This is not me as many promoters, bookers, acts, freinds, reviewers and audiences alike have seen me and know me. yours, with all the best Robert. ps. The last time this happenned was when i was 11 and ran out of church instead of playing a trumpet solo so these incidents have a 22 year frequency.

Robert White, September 2010

Steve, you had no option but to give this 0 stars. and what you say is worth reading. HOWEVER... I think the comedy world can fit in an occasional act like Robert's where the unpredictability is genuine, not rehearsed. When he's good (ie, nearly always), he's bloody good.

Bob, August 2010

A brilliant comedian with non-stop gags and very funny songs. Shame the reviewer was denied the chance to see the show. I've seen him storm big and small rooms on the two occasions I saw him live.

Sherlock, August 2010

Slightly crazy! He doesn't stay still for 2 seconds! But very smart jokes, quick witted with any audience participation, and plays piano very well with hilarious and complicated songs. Overall, worth seeing

Denise, February 2010