Tony Law: The Dog of Time
Show type: Edinburgh Fringe 2006
Jackass Tony Law presents a new one hour comedy show with
tales of time traveling with his dog and lessons for the future
of mankind. A show for people who like their comedy from the
garden part of the brain. The part that makes you not a prick
or plank head. It's controversial in that it really isn't and
you will like it. Featuring sponsor Chris from the craft barn,
the Viking Tholag, and letters to the future by Cartridge Davison.
Insightful. Clever. Subliminal. Hilarious.
Comedians
Reviews
Original Review:
Review
Tony Law has often struggled to marshal the excesses of his surreal imagination and original thinking into something audiences can still find easy to digest. With Dog Of Time, he's damn near cracked it with an hour that's silly, but still makes a point, odd without being aimless, and funny without compromise.
The bequiffed Canadian cheerily admits he's a 'jackass', but one with such immense charm and such sharp, if eccentric, intelligence that he is skilfully able to draw you into his ridiculous ideas, convincing you there really is something in them.
Broadly the premise is that he's been travelling through time with his sausage dog Cartridge Davidson, who decided to stick around in the Viking era and not return to present-day Edinburgh. That sounds contrived, and certainly not the most appealing pitch for a show, but Law offers a much more eclectic collection of ideas than that. So if you don't like one angle he takes, another will swiftly follow.
His flights of fancy might take us to imagining Romulus and Remus suckling at the teat of a squirrel, for instance, but they have real punchlines that ensure we're not just listening to the random mutterings of a madman. Then there's the time capsules that arrogantly mock the generations of the future and boast how our wasteful ways ruined their life making eco-preaching hilarious by turning the good intentions on its head.
He's self-referential, not only obsessing about the size of the audience, but introducing routines with such lines as 'here's my prepared observational material about what happens at dinner parties' Subtle links are such an alien concept for Law that he's invented a sponsor a South African craft shop whose deliberately ill-conceived adverts can buy him time to reverse out of the comedy dead-ends he wilfully saunters up.
The show loses its way a bit with the central time-travelling concept, and routines about how Cartridge was hailed as an ancient Greek god then elected as a Roman senator don't quite come off. It's the one concept that's hardest to buy in the entire show.
But this is a bold, ambitious attempt to do something different
and if you're prepared to cut him some slack because of
it, Law will reward you with an hour of uniquely inspired comedy.
Steve Bennett
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Older Comments
Matt - 10/09/2006
Clive got it spot on: he can't help but be funny. Without over-flattering the man he appears to have been born with that almost Tommy Cooper air that allows him to make people laugh simply by being on a stage. While some of the material here isn't 24-carat stuff (although some is) Law can easily carry the show on the weight of his immense charm and a natural funniness so lacking in so much of the circuit.
Susan - 08/09/2006
I saw this show twice and the second time it was even funnier. Tony Law is one of the brightest, smartest, funniest but somehow over looked comedians around. He's been brilliant for ages but people don't seem to realise. I loved his letters to the stupid people of the future. And the word from the sponsor... and the rest of it. And at the end when the beautiful little dog comes on. Dear stupid people of the present - go and see Tony Law you idiots
Clive - 05/09/2006
Tony can't help but be funny, this was a pretty awesome comedy show. Go and see the show if you want to see someone do original comedy because you get it every time and not at the expense of it being incredibly funny. Top show
Freehardy - 07/08/2006
Yeah Yeah, Seen him 200 years ago as well as tonight, Just as funny then as now. Good presence, Great delivery and fun characters, Well funny.