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ED2023 Comedy Reviews ED2023 Reviews
Gavin Webster: You Cannot Say Nowt These Days (Gavin Webster / The Stand Comedy Club)
By Bruce Blacklaw | Published on Monday 21 August 2023
The double-negative is the point in this funny, if not wholly coherent reflection on the free-speech/comedy debate. Occasional remarks activate various off-stage ‘thought police’ voices: a fun conceit, although the boundaries being tested here are mere words, such as ‘twat’ and ‘cunt’, which it turns out you can even put in a review, these days. Webster quotes a (rather good) Roy Chubby Brown gag. Not sure how pointing out how much better-known Brown is than Kate Smurthwaite constitutes a killer argument but ‘funny is funny’, I guess is what we’re getting at. The cracking closing song cogently points out how there have always been unsayable things, and people have always said them. Best ‘fire-in-an-orphanage’ joke you’ll hear all Fringe, too. You couldn’t not do worse.
The Stand Comedy Club, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 3/5 | [Bruce Blacklaw]
