Let me entertain you.
As the title of his show suggests, Simon Munnery’s Hats Off to the 101ers (and Other Material) is not a streamlined hour of stand-up, rather a series of unrelated monologues, poetry, songs, video clips, and anecdotes.
Most comedians adopt only one of these niches and stick to it, so it is a testament to his skill that this mish-mash approach is generally successful. This absence of structure might seem like laziness in other comedians, but it’s consistent with Munnery’s versatility. He could be described variously as a political, anecdotal, poetical, or musical comedian, but, interestingly, not an observational one , which is admirable as this is arguably the most popular form of stand-up these days. Kevin Eldon sent up this latter type of humour in his excellent act last year by spending a significant portion of time excitedly making a series of facile observations about shoes. One gets the sense that Munnery is Eldon’s idea of what a comedian should be; an active analyst, rather than someone who merely observes and repeats.
Munnery does not deliver a series of quick, easy laughs; his humour is more subtle, more subject to interpretation. Impressively, he manages to achieve this without coming across as a smart-ass. His audience somehow sound different to those at other stand-up shows in the way they vocalise their enjoyment – they laugh a lot, but there is an audible swell to it, as more people gradually begin to get the joke – you can almost hear the ‘click’ of comprehension.
His literary skill is perhaps where his greatest talent lies. He has a masterful grasp of wordplay and aphorisms, and his prose monologues were by turns brilliantly put and incredibly funny. Unfortunately, some of the musical numbers fell a little by the wayside. One routine – a dialogue between the two men crucified on either side of Jesus – eventually ended up becoming boring, but only in comparison to the brilliance of the earlier material. The audience seemed enraptured by his manner, which at points seemed curiously antiquated; reminiscent of an almost Johnsonian brand of Englishness. They were all firmly on his side, even during his less convincing routines.
While there were a few dips and wobbles in material, these were minor, forgiveable things, which had little real impact on the many pleasures of being entertained by such a versatile, imaginative and intelligent performer.
