Rory Bremner review – slick satirist cosies up to Trump, Rees-Mogg and the king

The Guardian

2 days ago

Topical comedy meets a trip down memory lane at Rory Bremner's touring show, where gags about – and impersonations of – Trump, Starmer et al rub shoulders with little parps from the far-flung past. Russell Grant, Keith Floyd and Robin Cook – remember them? Bremner does, and remembers the jokes he once told about them too. Prompted by onstage interlocutor Fred MacAulay, he summons them back to life here, in An Evening With … format that includes standup and sketch alongside chat-show banter and questions from the crowd.
It's perfectly entertaining, especially for those of us who were there first time around. (MacAulay makes a running joke of the confused 17-year-old in the front row.) Bremner is nothing if not a slick raconteur. Too slick, arguably: I sometimes wished he'd answer a question from the heart rather than from his mental Rolodex of well-buffed anecdotes. He does that once, when prompted to discuss his ADHD, and his commitment to destigmatising the condition. Elsewhere, it's smooth repartee about schmoozing the king, struggling with Noel Edmonds' voice, and prank calls he once made in character as Nelson Mandela.
There are treats for the locals in his native city: a cameo from Gavin Hastings and a Trump gag about the Fife village of Lower Largo that would bewilder audiences elsewhere. With little new to say about the US president, there's too much Trump in the standup portion of Bremner's show. It's not the only instance of our host treading familiar ground (on Rees-Mogg: 'he's like something out of a previous century', as if that's not been frequently observed). But there are choice moments, too: a fine quip about the names of the ex-Member for North East Somerset's kids; another about concussion protocols and the high recent turnover of British PMs.
You end with an impression of a satirist with little fire left in his belly, his anecdotes suggesting cosy camaraderie with the public figures he lampoons onstage. But he remains witty, well-informed (see the set piece in which voice-of-horseracing Peter O'Sullevan commentates on modern politics) and able with a twist of those vocal chords to spring the innocent, distant past irresistibly back to life.
At Gala Durham, 3 June; then touring.