At Chortle's Fast Fringe

July 2011

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CV

Tom Price: Say When
Live Review

As an actor, Tom Price has recently been in Torchwood, Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, My Family and is about to be in the forthcoming BBC4 drama about the Monty Python blasphemy row.

But on the strength of his debut Edinburgh show, you wonder if that’s left him quite enough time to work on his stand-up. He gets away with it – just – thanks to a gallon of likeability and a couple of entertaining stories nicely tied together, but it’s a close-run thing. And in a festival with so many options, this flyweight anecdotal hour just doesn’t have enough to stand out.

His opening gambit is to stress that he’s a posh boy. And what pretty much every posh-boy comic has been doing for the past decade is mock the urban accent they think everybody under 20 talks with, just to highlight how out-of-touch they are to that age group. ‘I can’t understand a word they say,’ sighs 31-year-old Price, like a retired colonel harrumphing about immigrants. And so, predictably, he mimics the patois for a good few minutes complete with vocal scr-scr-scr-scr-scrathing. In fact, the person he most sounds like is Tim Westwood – and he’s 53.

His class is also a hindrance when it comes to sex talk, so he tells us from the get-go – an inability to lose himself in the moment that proved quite a stumbling block when he had to fake it in his raunchy TV scene with Billy Piper. His tale of his crippling insecurities on set is one of his best and, rightly, forms the climax of the show. Another yarn, about him witnessing an attempted robbery in Chicago and winding up injured is eventful, and makes up a bit of weight in the show.

But the rest, about his upbringing in sleepy Monmouth, are too slight to capture the imagination as he tells of schoolday ‘gangs’, of his mother referring to her cerebral palsy as being ‘a bit spastic’, and of being stuck in traffic. OK, to be fair, there’s a bit more to that last one than that, and Price puts his all into trying to make it so; but he doesn’t really have the oomph to get the audience on board. It’s all just a little mild, with the occasional spice of a nice turn of phrase.

He pulls things together in the closing quarter, and gives some indication of why each of the preceding anecdotes had a place in the show. But the problem is, we didn’t feel that as he was actually telling them.

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Unexpectedly enjoyed Tom's witty sense of comedy tonight, when he stood in as host at The Waterfront. He did a fantastic of job of warming up the crowd, easing us into a great night. I also wish him luck for his impending nuptials with Gollum!

Sam Wye, June 2008

Boring and smug. Comedy at it's worst. Bland.

John G, June 2006

Highly original, inventive and more importantly, hilarious. Not to mention cute!

Jennifer, February 2004

His meandering style expertly masks a razor sharp wit which often lulls audiences into a false sense of security. At Edinburgh last summer he wandered into a snarling rabid bearpit of a club in the early hours and totally reined them in. A comic in total control of his performance.

Nat, February 2004

Fabulous. Natural, witty, intelligent, and immensely likeable. Nuff said, really... One to keep an eye on, in my opinion.

Teg, February 2004

There's no funnybone in the country this man couldn't tickle. I laugh harder everytime I see him. Tom Price really has declared open season on misery, and he's a damn fine shot.

Ash, February 2004

Saw him at Portsmouth Uni a few months ago. Never have I laughed so hard at a man waiting for a backdrop to fall down. You had to be there! Funny, warm and rather dashing. I'd pay to see him again and I'm sure he will go on to much bigger things.

Louise, January 2004

A natural. And a f***ing good actor too.

Gekko, January 2004

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