On falling over at 43

From Drambuie Late Night Pursuits on November 27, 2008.

More Sean Hughes videos

Until recently, a sardonic team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Sean Hughes started his career as a stand-up comedian by becoming the youngest winner of The Perrier Award. Several sell out tours later and two series of Sean’s Show for Channel 4, Sean diversified into writing, presenting and acting. Recently co starring with Peter Davison in The Last Detective (ITV).

Sean Hughes: Ducks & Other Mistakes I've Made
Live Review

There’s plenty of thoughtful, reflective humour in Sean Hughes’s current show – but, my, does he make the audience work for it.

He performs with little apparent motivation, so unwilling to show any enthusiasm that whenever he threatens to build up any momentum, he dissipates it immediately with downbeat asides. Yet when the half-full auditorium respond in kind, he’s quick to bemoan the Thursday night audience’s sluggishness, complaining that he’s not getting the reaction he feels his material deserves. To which the answer always has to be: well, whose fault is that?

Such grumpiness is intended as playful – I think. His intent isn’t always clear, compared to someone like Stewart Lee, who may chide the audience for not being up to speed, but only as a way of sending up his own pomposity and pretentiousness. Hughes, however, only serves to make the atmosphere even more downbeat than before.

Perhaps it’s the unique circumstances of this show, which is Hughes’s first since his father died last week – although previous reviews suggest he has a penchant for prickliness which long predates that. He postulates that mentioning his bereavement so early in the show, and straight after a hard-edged gag about Israel, might have been what turned the mood, though actually his frankness about the death and his dad’s last few weeks, is touching and humanising. We are absorbed by it, even if it isn’t laugh-out-loud hilarious.

That is the tone for much of what follows as the introspective Hughes, who turned 45 the day before the gig, much to his weary chagrin, ponders the effects of aging on his looks and his sex life, his failure to form a meaningful long-term relationship, quitting smoking and other such concerns of the middle-aged. Some of this falls on to familiar ground for stand-ups of a certain vintage – rectal examinations are especially hack – but there’s a cantankerous charm beneath the low-energy complaining. However other insights, on topics ranging from snoring to Jesus, are more original, and he can certainly craft a well-judged phrase.

He also proves he can write ‘joke jokes’ with a nifty bit of wordplay here and there, but then he’s quick to distance himself from it, as if something as structured as a gag is beneath him – more Tim Vine territory, he points out. It’s another of his – successful – attempts to disrupt his own flow.

The audience, though quiet, are content to indulge him, even when he attempts to rile them with some provocative banter. If you weren’t already a fan, you might not cut him quite so much latitude, but a full 20 years after winning the Perrier, he’s been around long enough to earn it. Perhaps after such a time he, feels he’s nothing left to prove, so keeps himself on that knife-edge of losing the audience for his own challenge.

He never does lose them – at least not for more than a moment – but equally he doesn’t take the room on the sort of emotional comic ride of which you suspect he is more than capable… if it wasn’t for his own languor.

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I'm totally in opposition to the majority of negative comment's made about Sean having seen him on a short Scottish tour - finally arriving at Inverness for the last gig on that tour. Most people seem to be harking back many year's to when they last saw him live! you've changed and so has he. He did what's expected of him -makes complete strangers laugh! and did it in a quiet, unassuming,gentle manner that we have come to know from him. Not some frenetic comedian bouncing about the stage - head/hair bobbing up and down like some Churchill dog ad.

Douglas Thomson, June 2011

Sean came to the small Border town of Langholm last week. Saw him in London 20 years ago and laughed til i cried. Not this time though. Obviously the man is not well and should not be putting himself and his audience through this misery. His act was lazy, lacklustre and pathetic, an embarrassment. I took my son aged 15 - big mistake. Left at the interval tired of the cheap jibes at the audience and the tasteless "jokes". It left a bad taste in my mouth for sure. What a waste -tragic.

jane rose, April 2011

Having spent a cracking evening in Leicester on Saturday, with Sean headlining, I can honestly say that as an avid, sometimes obsessive comedy goer that the comments on here seem to be about a very different chap than the one I had the pleasure to see. Engaging, warm, self depricating and a natural funny man. He didn't arrive in the last moments of the gig to be heralded as some do, but was there the whole time, guaging his audience and observing and enjoying his fellow comedians. Sean knows his trade, he's a witty and intelligent man, I'd be happy to pay to see him again and look forward to his next 20 years.

Ni Tle, January 2011

Saw Sean at Edinburgh Fringe 2010 at The Gilded Balloon. Had high hopes for this show but left feeling somewhat let down. He was in a foul mood and came across as a bitter has-been when gags didn't work. Shame as this could've been a really good show if Hughes had just left his bad mood at the door and just focused on his material. He spent half the set either chastising the crowd for not laughing and would resort to picking on members of the front row with cruel and witless jibes. Sean was onetime a great talent in the biz but now he's just an angry man who's in bad shape.

Alan, November 2010

Just seen him tonight and the review hasn't changed in over a year.Still shit.There were 5 yes FIVE people in the first two rows - 4 of them Irish and he spend most of the evening getting (strained) laughs from poking fun at them. It was only late in the show that he let slip he was born in London which explained why he kept going back to these people to get laughs.He is now such an embarrassment to see live and all he could do was moan about how empty the crowd was. Maybe the empty seats tells him its time to change the show

declan, February 2010

I think these comments are all very mean eager to run down Sean because he is far from his youngest comic win 20 years ago.I saw him last night at the Colchester Arts Centre and thought he was really thoughtful and funny. Much better than the massed produced, over hyped drivel seen today like "Live from the Apollo". He is a very diverse and talented human being that like many of us has reached 40 and has realised life isn't all it is cracked up to be. My own concern was that he seems a bit forlorn and unloved!

Emma Depper, January 2010

I saw Sean play the George Square Theatre in Edinburgh back in 1996 and have always held it up since as the finest hour of stand-up I've ever seen. So reading mixed reviews on here, I was a little apprehensive about seeing him at the Royal in Northampton last night (22 Jan 2010) in case it jaded a treasured memory. Well, the opposite happened and I was reminded of what a brilliant stand-up Sean Hughes is. His skill at incorporating the live environment into his prepared material is second to none and comments made by various members of the audience were used to great effect. Thoughtful, well-paced comedy from a true master of the form. Looking forward to seeing him again soon.

David Sharpe, January 2010

Sean Hughes 1965 - 1995: Talented, quick witted and respected by his peers. Will be sorely missed.It now appears that we are left with an embittered zombie of a comic, ranting and puffing to a room of disinterested people that have come to see the comic that shined so well in the 80/90. Granted this is a comeback from a long time out and he could well be finding his feet again. I watched in hope that things would pick up, only finding myself offering the same nervous and polite titter here and there. I hope that with better writing and more time on the stage his spark will return. I still hold out hope but will not be rushing to see him again any time soon.

Max, January 2010

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