What now?

The Comedy Terrorist has got our attention. What will he do with it?

Aaron Barschak's spectacular gatecrashing of Prince William's 21st birthday party provoked plenty of headlines about Royal security being a joke.

But for the self-styled Comedy Terrorist, the gag that most springs to mind must be this old chestnut: "I built four barns in this village, but do they call me Jones the Barn-Builder? No. I built 17 miles of fence around here, but do they call me Jones the Fence-Builder? No. But I shag one sheep..."

Whatever happens next, Barschak will forever be associated for this one stunt - impressive though it is. Turning that into any sort of comedy career will be a challenge even more daunting than bypassing Scotland Yard's finest.

It's the difference between fame and respect. One night's exploits have gathered him more column inches around the globe than even our biggest-selling comics could dream of. But now he's got our attention, what will he do with it?

Based on his previous, scheduled, comedy club appearances, the prospects look bleak. Dressed in a Guantanamo Bay-style orange jumpsuit he has railed incoherently at audiences, overstaying his welcome and being dragged from behind the microphone without raising much of a laugh.

His impromptu performances, on the other hand, can seem funny after the event - or childishly attention-seeking, depending on your point of view. But being the comedy equivalent of a streaker is no way to forge a lasting career, either. As it is Barschak's already 36, and old enough to know better.

As has been widely reported, the Comedy Terrorist has an hour-long show at the Edinburgh Fringe. Before Saturday, it can't have featured highly on many people's must-see lists. Now he can expect sell-out houses. Yet it's hard to see the sort of incomprehensible tirades for which he has become infamous, if only on the lower reaches of the open mic circuit, providing enough to sustain a show.

On the other hand, it has been a remarkable year for Barschak, using his daredevil approach to disrupt theatre gigs, anti-war demonstrations and art exhibitions. This has given him a unique range of experiences that most of us wouldn't envy, but turn those experiences into a documentary-style comedy show, and perhaps you've got something.

We all want to hear how he got away with it, what his agenda is, what in God's name possessed him. If there's anything left to tell after Barschak's five-figure deal with the tabloids, there will be a lot that audiences will want to hear. Properly structured - and with some actual jokes, of which we've seen little evidence so far - his could be a blockbuster show.

If he can't capitalise on this worldwide attention, he'll have strangled his comedy career at birth - and in doing so, damaged the image of stand-up itself.

Already he has been described as a failed actor and failed Ali G impersonator who turned to comedy as some sort of place where his bizarre behaviour would be encouraged rather than scored. To a point, of course, it has been, as everyone loves a maverick.

But it's doing little to promote the idea of a comedy club as a place where you experience intelligence and wit alongside the absurd and the knob gag.

Comedy's already massively undervalued as an art form - and some of its less inspired exponents must shoulder some of the blame for that - but if it's continually perceived as solely being a ghetto in which weirdos and misfits can indulge their unfettered zaniness, rgeardless of whether it's actually fun, then it's another nail in the circuit's coffin.

Let's hope Barschak pulls this off. He's shouted "look at me" long enough and loud enough to get us all looking. It would be a shame if all he now said was "Oh, nothing" and shuffled back into obscurity.

 

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Published: 23 Jun 2003

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