TONY LAW: The Law Also Rises
4.5 stars ~
Monkey Barrel - The Hive 1, Edinburgh Fringe ~
Tony Law says he rode to the show on Tuppence. Things do not become any more comprehensible, but Tony later reassures us that we all have editing suites in our heads. However meantime by way of welcome Tony points out that the room is toasty so the audience can nap and switch off.
Describing Tony's offering as surreal would be going too far, although with him wearing clothes similar to a clown's and gardening gloves that might be in doubt. However there can be no doubt that we are in the presence of an extremely entertaining, eccentric comedy entertainer, proved by even the most hesitant in his audience soon giggling. Tony's delivery and material appears so random, meandering and unstructured that you might feel it would do his care and attention to his craft a disservice by attempting to describe it, in the same way as would have been for Spike Milligan. That said this is a review so there is a contractual obligation to mention that he riffs for example on him staying in a stripped out caravan on a family caravan park in North Berwick but without his family, adding the aside that when his young twins were with him at the Fringe he dressed them in kilts for monetary benefit, before commenting it would not work now they are 6'2 and not cute anymore.
Erratic musings from this award-winning comedian include that there was no Monster RavingLoony party in the recent election, about statues of other Greyfriars Bobbies, that old timers do not know how to talk about mental health, what he was called aged 9, why he has missed the orgies boat, that he doesn’t have a garden, with mention of falconry. This random synopsis comes nowhere near the indescribable actuality of Tony's idiosyncratic style.
In summary, Tony Law: The Law Also Rises is an extremely skilfully well-crafted and delivered show which wilfully and erratically meanders, while charming his audience and provoking much laughter and joy.
Reviewed by RoxyReviews for One4Review on 9 Aug 2024