Show Details
Steve Hughes At War With Satan
Show type: Edinburgh Fringe 2004
Starring Comic:
Steve Hughes

Steve Hughes At War With Satan


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Description

Preferring a diet of vampire films, stand up comedy and heavy metal music, Steve Hughes began performing in the mid 80's playing drums for a variety of thrash metal bands


At War with Satan is an hour long satirical stand up comedy show with a spiritual edge - a personal perspective on a world morality and our quest for for global freedom with some great material about porn, vampires and heavy metal thrown in.

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Reviews

Original Review:

Show Rating:Steve Hughes At War With Satan rated 3/5

Steve Hughes makes his Edinburgh debut with a solid hour of pure, straightforward stand-up that ultimately proves just too familiar to stand out from the Fringe crowd. Despite the many points in his favour, this easygoing Australian just seems to have bitten off more than he can chew in tackling the full hour.

The title comes from a Venom album, a fine example of the unfashionable heavy metal he loves so much. But, a couple of anti-Goth gags aside, this is not the theme of the show. In fact, it doesn't seem to have much of a theme at all.

Instead, when it comes to the choice of topics, he just ticks the boxes of what we would expect ­ drugs, porn, the war on terror: all the topics that usually come into a comic's radar, all present and correct.

The material he gleans from this is done with a sharp style, mostly adding at least something of his own spin to the familiar observations, and overusing the word 'unbelievable' as punctuation, if the stupidity of the situations he's highlighting needs further underlining.

There are certainly some great routines in the mix ­ if only about 20 minutes' worth - with a discourse on gay men being far from the effete 'poofs' they are often laddishly dismissed as being a real stand-out ­ but there's lots of filler, too.

Do we really need to hear once more what it's like to be high on drugs, or another reinforcement of the national stereotypes that's become such a tired comic staple? It's when he's pondering 'what would Australian porn be like' that he's at his weakest, and most disappointingly formulaic.

Hughes, who could easily be Australia's No 1 Boothby Graffoe impersonator, is immensely laid-back, casually smoking and drinking through the hour and chatting with the casual confidence of a comic at home in front of a crowd, even with material as wildly patchy as this.

To pull off an hour of gimmick-free, structure-free stand-up, especially so late at night, requires a rare talent, and one that Hughes doesn't quite possess, for all that's in his favour.

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Comments

This dude kicks ass! He's very funny! And what's more, hes into metal! Rock on!

James Slater, October 2007


Saw him yesterday, the same day we saw Ross Noble and he was a million times better - funny to the point of falling over without needing once to pick on the audience

Gareth Edwards, August 2004


He's got some pearlers that I wish I'd written

Brendon Burns, August 2004



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