one4review | On 12, Aug 2023

If you ever have trouble with transitions from one topic to the next, please seek advice from Luke Connell. We started with rodeos in Texas, ended with an initially underrated 1980s classic pop track, and did so via Wetherspoons, pickled eggs and maths, and the slide from one topic to the next is so seamless you almost don’t realise we’ve moved on until you look back to see where we’ve been.

Mr Connell’s a lovely stage presence, dapper in his jacket and jeans, calm and unperturbed by an audience in a venue smaller than most front rooms. He manages to capture something fundamentally British in his set, but the good bits of that, not the rubbish bits. Solicitous of the audience, explaining bits for the non-natives, and with an easily facility for words and for smoothly connecting ideas and images, he delivers an understated and unassuming set of quiet delight.

We do indeed have lots of ways to say that it’s okay, it’s fine, it’ll do. They’re not appropriate here: this one’s awesome.

 

Reviewed by Laura

15:40 (1hr)
Laughing Horse @ City Cafe
Until 27th (not 15th)