Twelve Days of Christmas – Day 11 – Lee Harris
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Monday night was the second annual Angry Robot Christmas night out (despite me not being employed by AR until early January, I headed down to Nottingham in December last year and went out for beers with Marco so he wouldn’t be all on his lonesome at the Christmas do).
We had tickets to see some stand-up comedians. The show was hosted by Johnny Vegas, and there were three performers before the headline act, Jim Jefferies (who became my current favourite stand-up after I saw his HBO special on a flight to Montreal in August).
The three comedians who preceded Jefferies were good, and sometimes very good. For me, however, Vegas and Jefferies stole the (nearly 4 hour!) show.
Now, I’d never seen Johnny Vegas live. I liked him in the Graham Duff sitcom, Ideal, but I always watch that show wondering how much actual acting Vegas is doing. Other than Ideal, though, I’ve never really been a fan. His stand-up impressed me greatly, however. Some of it was scripted, but most of it was improvised, and centred on his interactions with the audience. Jefferies’ routine, on the other hand, was entirely scripted, with little room for improvisation.
Two very different styles, but with one thing in common: risk.
Vegas took risks in his set by refusing to fall back on too many rehearsed routines (though there were some). A fair bit of his routine didn’t work, but most of it did. The bits that didn’t work didn’t work for a reason – they were improvised, they were fresh, they were untested. You know when you’re sitting in the pub and your mate riffs off something you said, and it’s the most hilarious thing ever, and you’ll be repeating it to everyone you see for weeks? It was like that, but for an hour. The man is quick witted, and his routine works because of the risks he takes in demanding it be fresh. You could tell he hated leaving the stage, it was where he felt comfortable.
Jefferies takes different risks. He takes offensive material and condenses it into its purest form. Pretty much everything inoffensive is removed before it’s presented onstage. His comedy is extreme. He doesn’t rely on offence to create the comedy, though – it’s not that swearing is big and clever (though it is, of course, kids) - he takes offensive ideas and situations and finds the comedy that’s already there, the comedy that other people refuse to acknowledge. It’s uncomfortable to watch, sometimes, but frightening liberating at the same time.
And why is this a Christmas post you ask? Well, that’s a good question – thanks for bringing it up. It’s because the show inspired me, and I’m giving myself a late Christmas present. I’m going to take more risks in 2010. The one big risk I took in 2009 paid off, and I’m now going to allow myself to take more. It’s easy to tread the safe path, and that can work out well. You can avoid disappointment that way. Taking risks means you fall on your face more often, but the rewards can be that much greater.
But surely that’s a New Year Resolution, rather than a late Christmas gift, you say. To which, my response would be: Shhhh. I don’t think they noticed.
So, try it. Try doing something in January that you’ve been wanting to do, but that you daren’t. Just one thing - something that might fail. If it does, you’re better off for the experience. If it doesn’t, you’ve just won something wonderful.
Merry Christmas.
