CV

Trevor Lock: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Alternative Fringe @ The Hive

Trevor Lock made his Edinburgh Fringe debut 13 years ago, but in many ways he still seems like a new comic making mistakes, but with some promise. That promise is taking a long time to blossom.

He talks nonsense for an hour, in a never-ending stream of consciousness that takes endless, frustrating diversions. His main trick is to say something vaguely ambiguous, then effectively say ‘no, no, I don’t mean that possible second meaning which, given the context no one was thinking anyway’ and spin off into increasingly unrewarding, irrelevant tangents.

A similarly annoying tic is to run through half a dozen variants of lines, as if he got it wrong first time, but battering the joke to death: ‘My grandfather married a mermaid, no a barmaid, no a barstool, no a rocking chair…’ Cue a short routine about proposing to a rocking chair.

It seems he’s afraid of sincerity; or even of sticking his own story – a story which is basically about how he starting thinking about the practicalities of home-made sex tapes after a naked French man approached him and his girlfriend with an indecent proposal while they were holidaying on a nudist beach in the Riveria.

Lock has plenty of ideas where you might think: ‘There could be something in that…’ – such as his philosophical thoughts on self-image of his alternate version of the Butterfly Effect – but he rarely explains the notions particularly well, or in a particularly funny way. By the end of the hour, you sort of see what he was trying to say, but rarely while he’s actually saying it.

He’s apologetic about some of his material – as rightly should be – complains about his room in the Hive and grumbles that there aren’t more of us here, all of which put further dampers on an already tenuous situation.

He never convinces us to come with him on his more surreal pathways, so find himself wibbling on about a man with a basket for a penis to general apathy – and that’s not the sort of thing that works unless your audience  totally believe in you.

Lock has supported Stewart Lee and Russell Brand – on whose radio show he was the regular sidekick – and that 1999 Fringe show was a three-hander alongside  Daniel Kitson and Andrew Maxwell. He’s certainly got his work cut out if he’s to catch up with any of them.

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Trevor came to my humble abode last night to perform stand-up as part of his current "Live in your living room tour", he was amazing, a true comedy master, consistently funny and engaging throughout, if you get the chance, go see him, you wont regret it

vince croft, May 2011

I'm incredibly excited to have discovered Trevor Lock at the Hob in Forest Hill this weekend. Very fast stream of consciousness stuff, very spontaneous, more original than anyone I've seen in ages, and so funny still felt weak from laughing at him after the much less successful closing act. Chortle badly needs to update its review.

Steve Tomkins, December 2010

lets start by saying that the review that chortle has given Trevor is a fass, he was a breath of fresh air in what appeared to be a failing british comedy scene, i believe Andy Kuaffman, Bill Hicks and Richard Pryor were all slated at the begining because of there style, and this is no different, this boy will be a massive star, thank you Trevor for making our night!!!

Ronnie, April 2010

He has the true spirit of comedy

tom, November 2009

I saw Trevor Lock at Birmingham City Uni, and thought he was very entertaining, and clever but unfortunately there were a lot of people who were rude and not willing to be open to a new kind of comedy

Ami, October 2009

He has some really interesting lines, surreal and inspired. He does let himself down in terms of consistency, like the review says. About 10mins of a 30min set was lacking a joke a minute, and when one did come along it gained just a wry smile. But in the earlier 20mins, he's on fire. Some inventive silliness that's as clever as daft. Just a shame that the ending suffers, because I could feel that it left the audience with a bad aftertaste, which wouldn't have been the case if he dropped that material or perhaps made it more concise. He would've been hailed a 'comedy genius' if he left after one of his great surreal one-liners. He really needs to rearrange and tighten his set. Great potential though, despite finding out on Chortle that he's already been in the business over a decade. Good luck.

Jess O\'Connor, May 2009

The review of Trevor is from 2002 and does not paint a true reflection of his many comedic talents.I saw Trevor at the Therapy Room comedy club in Tunbridge Wells recently and he was truly 1st class,keeping the attention of the crowd for almost an hour.He is not your traditional comic which is quite refreshing,with his sharp wit and very clever wordplay.I would definitely recommend you see this guy,well worth the entrance money alone.

Stef Fuller, May 2009

I was really looking forward to seeing Mr Lock for the first time and I wasn't disappointed. Trevor wandered to the front of the room and spent about twenty minutes just 'riffing' off people in the room, like a comedy jazz man he was amazing turning the slightest murmur or cough into something. I am not sure where his rehearsed act started or ended as he created so many jokes by getting to know the crowd and coming up with more which is a sign of a comedy genius in my book. Very sharp and inventive.

Martyn Tott, December 2008

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