On Russell Howard's Good News

2009

More Steve Hall videos

Steve Hall joined the stand-up circuit in 2002, where he made the final of the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award. The following year, he was runner-up in the BBC New Comedy Awards.

As well as performing his own stand-up, Hall is also part of the knockabout sketch group We Are Klang alongside Greg Davies and Marek Larwood, who were nominated for the 2006 if.comedy award for their third Edinburgh show.

However, Hall did not make his own solo Edinburgh debut until 2008, with the show Vice Captain Loser.

Steve Hall: Very Still Life
Live Review

Comedy works by exaggerating the trivial – just how many Edinburgh shows are based on an incident in a stand-up’s life, blown up to provide supposedly great insight into the state of this world.

Well, Steve Hall’s gone the other way, and downplayed what’s been a huge part of his life – the bureaucratic problems that kept him and his Australian wife apart for eight months, merely because he didn’t submit the correct amount of paperwork to secure her visa. ‘I know this is in danger of being a very middle-class whinge,’ he says at the start of the show – and at the end adds: ‘This is a small thing, but to me it’s big.’

It epitomises Hall’s unfussy, almost Dogme-like, approach to stand-up – to keep steadfastly to the truth, and use no special effects to tell his tales. It makes for a subdued hour, and although there’s wit and modest charm here, there is absolutely no danger of socks being blown off.

He admits that despite a Catholic-Jewish background made up of Scottish, Irish and Ukrainian genes, he has the typical reserve of the English lower-middle-class, socially awkward and not good with confrontation. Or in his own, typically mild, words, he’s ‘too much of a wally’.

The one time he did stand up for himself – knowing that he could do so safely on an Australian railway platform – is regaled here, though it naturally ends in humiliation. Elsewhere there are tales of his long-distance relationship, of encroaching middle age, and of his ‘wonderfully mental dad’ – which must be a common trait of former We Are Klang members, given Greg Davies’s storming show on his mad father.

Often it’s Hall’s wife or surprisingly homophobic dad who comes up with the best lines, either by accident or design, and Hall comes across as a second-hand reporter of funny comments; although his comedy editor is well-tuned, and he only serves up the best of what he hears.

The show loses its way a bit in the final quarter, not particularly helped by his low-key delivery, but there’s a good few chuckles on the way. And he is giving the world the below-the-belt slang phrase ‘squid beak’, and for that we should be grateful.

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Saw him tonight at the Tabard and he was hilarious. Very funny and would see him again tomorrow.. Now view as he maybe funniest of the Klang group.

Max de Nahlik, February 2011

Bravo Steve you battyman queer, we genuinely enjoyed your set at Liverpool last night very much!

Darren & Carla, Liverpool, December 2009

Untill last night I had'nt heard of Steve but was bowled over by his support set for Russell Howard at Newcastle, the guy was funny enough to be headlining himself and I'll deffinitely be looking out for him playing the North East again

Pete Miller, December 2009

Steve supported Russell Howard again last night at the M.E.N. Arena, Manchester. He was absolutely fantastic, and couldn't have squeezed more laughter into a fantastic 20 minute set.

Suneet, December 2009

Saw Steve live at the We Are Klang dvd recording on the 5th November. It was hilarious! And I keep thinking and smiling at the skits! I so can't wait for the dvd, it'll be ace.

Tracey Baker, November 2009

Saw Steve supporting Russell Howard in Liverpool last night. Very funny indeed - and Steve, if your dad ever gets into standup let me know - he sounds hysterical!

Rachel Smith, December 2008

Effing hilarious. That is all that needs saying.

Nadina, December 2008

I just saw him last night. He was so amazing... and he got his bell end out on stage by accident...so funny! You have to see him if you haven't already.

Hannah Rosbrook, November 2008

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