Jimmy Carr (49) has been one of the world’s biggest comedians for almost 15 years. He has sold out world tours, achieved great success on Netflix and hosted the British comedy program “8 out of 10 Cats”. Now he is on a Norwegian tour and will visit a total of six cities – although he insists that Norway only has two. On Monday evening, he came to Oslo, with a two-hour long show that could easily have been half as long. Distinctive style Carr is a comedian who prides himself on being as rude as possible, and that in one-liner format. He is a specialist in sending the audience in one direction, before mercilessly capsizing the ship and throwing them over the rip. To take an example of a typical Jimmy Carr joke: This format is fresh for exactly ten minutes for those of you who have seen a lot of stand-up, but the material is so well written that every right-left trick gets its deserved response from the audience. A fair comparison in terms of format could be old Rodney Dangerfield or Don Rickles. Set up and score at about the same moment. Lover of “hecklers” Jimmy Carr has also become well known for a strange contract between audience and comedian. Carr is such a skilled improviser that he encourages rudeness from the audience, so-called hecklers. This is emphasized by the fact that this message rolls over the big screen half an hour before the start of the show: “Do you have an insult against Jimmy? Send an SMS to …» This is a move he probably has to use even more diligently in Norway than in his home country of England. Here, we’re not in the habit of yelling obscenities at comedians, and I think the tomato-throwing thing is just an ancient cartoon trope. Testing the sensitivity When the performance begins, he has made the big screen work as a heater. There, crude jokes are shown for the audience to laugh at, to test their sensitivity. A couple of them are rather outdated mother-in-law jokes, but most of them are a good clue as to where the country is. When Carr himself comes on stage, the first thing he says is a “trigger warning”. There are no themes here, but he is responsible for very few of them. The audience gets to ride Anyway, when the man on stage has cracked around 20,000 one-line jokes in the first ten minutes, it’s time for some audience interaction. The comedian’s first victim is a poor man on the top balcony who introduces himself as Ludo. The exchange between them is among the funniest material during the performance. Carr should be credited for understanding that the intense and frenetic pace of his jokes quickly becomes exhausting, thus realizing that the audience needs a rest cushion. Almost Literally, Carr is a marvel. The jokes are extremely dull, but the shock effect he achieves with the format is so effective that it’s just refreshing. Especially in such a pressured industry that comedians find themselves in at the moment. The one-liner format makes it easy to see this exclusively as jokes – where other comedians with similar material (Ricky Gervais, Louis CK) often make long harangues about politically incorrect topics, Carr is very good at making his texts harmless using the form . Exhausting It should be mentioned that the element of surprise in this form wears off quite quickly. After two hours you are quite exhausted and start to spot the points from a mile away. Eventually, Carr has something of the same presence as the one in the gang who never says anything funny, but gets a response to one joke and can’t stop chasing the thrill of making a whole gang laugh. At some point, enough is enough. Especially when the joke density is so high. Jimmy Carr should be satisfied that he has such good lyrics and timing, but if this is to last this long, he should adapt his performance to a more dynamic register. One-liners, audience interaction and the fake laugh (which has become a trademark for some reason) are all well and good, but I’m convinced that this show could have been half as short. news reviews Title: “Jimmy Carr – Terribly Funny” Where: Oslo, Fredrikstad, Lillehammer, Skien, Drammen and Bergen Genre: Humor Running time: Two hours
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“Jimmy Carr – Terribly Funny” at Sentrum Stage – Reviews and recommendations
