The secret lives of funny people part 2

Andrew Maxwell and Steve Hughes battle it out in the water.

More Steve Hughes videos

Steve Hughes: Big Issues
Live Review
Leicester Square Theatre

For an outspoken spokesman for the non-compliant counter-culture, Steve Hughes can be remarkably mainstream.

He’s got routines about all those baffling coffee choices in Starbucks about those elaborate revolving toilet doors on intercity trains and about how Steve Irwin’s 2006 death was no surprise after a lifetime of poking dangerous animals. Hacky observational comedy of the simplest – and least interesting – kind.

Yet he is forgiven these weak points, partly because he does at least express them with a witty flourish of language, but mainly because they have little relevance to the bigger picture: a consistent and passionate comedy outlook driven by his distinctive convictions. Suspicion is the single defining trait – or paranoia, depending on where your sympathies lie.

And the bigger picture, as the show’s title suggests, is this grizzled Australian’s main concern. His material contains almost as many references to such global ideas such as the ‘corporate Satantic matrix’ or humanity’s ‘singular consciousness’ as there are C-bombs. Which is a lot.

His instinct – no, his compulsion – is to question authority, in whatever form it takes, from CCTV surveillance to health and safety. Sometimes you suspect he’s disputing orthodoxies just for the sake of it, but he’s of the opinion that apathy is the biggest threat to freedom, and is determined not to join a populace complicit in the erosion of their own rights.

Even if you don’t wholeheartedly agree with his worse-case-scenario outlook, Hughes is funnier, and more gentle, than the preachy politics might suggest. Well, for the bulk of the show at least -– in the closing third or so, he spends a lot of the comedy capital he’s acquired as he mounts his soapbox and pushes the message ahead of the jokes. Received wisdom is here dismissed with a derisory snort, rather than the piercing barbs which characterise his best routines.

Hughes’s fans will have heard some of this before; as it’s not only the same issues that have consumed him for the past decade or so, but some of the same routines, too. However newcomers to his work are in for a treat, and there is enough fresh writing for this not to be merely a ‘greatest hits’ tour on the back of a couple of high-profile telly gigs.

As well as his outsider politics, Hughes comes across as the ultimate road comic – the product of a life of hard, transient living that provides a vicarious fascination for the more buttoned-down component of his audience… which, compared to him, is pretty much everyone. But he’s charming with it, widening his appeal.

Hughes still has the earthy demeanour of the heavy metal guitarist he used to be. But with his stand-up he proves himself a skilful lyricist, too, able to condense his big ideas into a pithy, elegant punchline. One brief routine about privacy ends with the payoff ‘How come my house has more rights than I do?’ which is typically efficient and eloquent.

Kudos, too, to opening act Sully O’Sullivan – who didn’t push the boat out in terms of originality, and had a forced cadence that’s too obviously fake – but he got the job done with skilful audience banter, and some perfectly dropped punchlines that provided an appealing twist to routine set-ups.

It all makes for an entertaining night of subtle sedition – sticking it to The Man, but with a smile.

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I saw Steve last night in some grotty pub in the student end of the City and thought he was excellent. Never really gone to see live stand up, although I have watched it on TV before, and I honestly thought that this guy was as good as I've seen. He managed to a put humourous spin on every topical news item and he had a real way about him. Wehn he walks on, you wonder what the hell he is going to talk about but he soons wins you over with his charm, intelligence and undoubted wit. Hate Americans? no, just theit ridiculous government! Don't we all

GMarchy, May 2007

Well... where do you start with lovable, cuddly, inteligent, genuine, amusing, mature and tolerant Steve Hughes? Urmm let me think ... ah yes! By describing him as the opposite. Steve is just plain nasty, ascerbic, irritating, preachy, immature, hateful, knee jerk, cheap and not very bright. Added to that his fake left wing views hide a vicious racism. Racism, as we all know is born out of fear and ignorance. So Steve should really stop preaching his hate and learn a little about what he's talking about. You never know... he might find he's got nothing useful to say. What a relief that would be to the rest of us

Maria Jonas, April 2007

Steve was superb at the Glee the other day - effortlessly covering lots of big topics with insight and real humour - for my money one of the real big hitters on the circuit today. Rich Xx

Rich Batsford, April 2007

Saw Steve in Cardiff last night and thought he was absolutely fantastic and very much funny-clever rather than funny crude. Some intellect and knowledge of current events is required in order to get some of his joked but I loved that. I really really enjoyed his show and would definetely go and see him again.

Conny, February 2007

Saw Steve at York on Jnauray 7. He is far too slow in his delivery and seemed to spend more time lighting his fag and drinking than making us laugh. Too many pauses before any gags so it didn't flow. Very few really funny gags in his act. Probably the worst comedian I've seen at the club. I would definitely not pay to see him again. Avoid!

Ben Cartwright, January 2007

Having watched Steve a number of times and recently had the pleasure of gigging with him, I genuinely think he is one of the best comics currently working on the UK circuit. The people accusing him of simplifying the world's problems into 'White' and 'Brown' or being anti-semitic seem to have missed the underlying message in his material that underneath it all, we're all the same (even the Jews!). He is one of the few comedians that can even make people who disagree with his politics and beliefs laugh at his material simply because aside from the politics it is still just funny which at the end of the day is all that matters.

Carl Donnelly, December 2006

Must have seen him about 15 times now - definitely one of, if not the best performers I've seen and there aren't many I haven't seen. It doesn't matter what your politics are, he's very funny. All this crap about Jew- hating and Anti-Americanism, just listen to the set, how many times does he have to say he doesn't hate the American people, just the government...and Jew-hating wtf? Go see him.

Alex, November 2006

Steve is a Jew hating, American hating idiot who simplifies the world into his racist construct using inflammatory language such as “whites” and “brown people” to separate the world. Steve buys into conspiracy theory and jokes you’d expect to hear from 14-year-old socialists. If you’re a right thinking individual or hold any grasp of sanity avoid this moron at all costs.

staffo, October 2006

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