Review by Steve Bennett

His strength is punchy musical one-liners; gags that are efficiently set up then smartly despatched with a snatched line or two from a rewritten hit song.

Where many lesser comics would painfully pad the one gag out into a full, repetitive song, this lively Scouser swiftly dismisses it to move onto the next. The jokes might be punny, silly or old-fashioned – but the spirited quickfire delivery ensures he’s a worthy crowd-pleaser.

Gribbin does, however, struggle to maintain that impressive momentum with the full-length numbers he writes. Here a heavy reliance on the shorthand of simplistic, familiar reference points - George Bush=stupid, for instance - means the lyrics can lean towards the bland. Still, the music is so upbeat, and performed with such vigour, that it can’t fail to entertain.

His subjects are drawn from topical events, and he works hard to that ensure his material is quickly turned over, keeping the routine bang up-to-date. He might have been on the comedy circuit more than 20 years - first as part of the Skint Video double act, then as a solo act – but he’s admirably determined not to rest on his laurels.

Despite that success, Gribbin’s writing is still informed by a chip-on-the-shoulder working-class anger, which gives a vicious kick to some of his more vicious insults, however cheerily they are delivered. And that sugar-coated venom is what gives Gribbin’s polished set the edge.

Review date: 8 Aug 2000
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett