DANNY BHOY sauntered on to the stage of Eden Court’s Empire theatre as though he was walking back into his lounge after putting the kettle on.  You half expect him to ask if you want a chocolate biscuit.  He is beyond doubt the most relaxed stand up performing today.  If that relaxed attitude is an act, and beneath the faced he is quivering like jelly, then he deserves an Oscar.

Danny Bhoy

Bhoy is instantly likeable and in less than a few seconds the audience has taken him to their hearts, seduced by his easy charm.  His opening conversations with the audience lack the threat and tension that other comedians carry as they try to engage with their public.  You know from the outset that there will be no savage put downs, no audience members reeling from exposure to his wit.  Bhoy is just too nice for all that.

I first saw him perform in the Edinburgh fringe around five years ago.  Even then he had the charm, but he had not quite reached the level of confidence and ease with an audience that is now his hallmark.  Back then he was a hot ticket and a man tipped for greater things, now he is as polished a performer as you are likely to see.

What I noticed had changed about his style is that he is now a much more finely tuned physical comedian than he was when I first saw him.  In his early years he paced the stage like a caged panther, pausing only momentarily to deliver an adept punch line into the ribs of the audience. Now his physical acting ability is very much in evidence as he brought to life scenes with multiple characters with a skill that rivals Eddie Izzard.

In the time he was on stage Bhoy took the audience through keenly observed incidents in his life, acting out his most embarrassing moments.  His accounts of saying the wrong thing when he met the Queen and his spectacular failure when trying to impress a member of the opposite sex are comedy classics.

His humour is accessible, intelligent, well observed and beautifully crafted. Bhoy is a man who knows his business and his aim is to tickle his audiences into laughter, something he never fails to achieve in performances that have brought him a world wide following.  He was described as “the stand out hit” of the Montreal Comedy festival in 2008.

One of the best things about the show was the interval, mainly because there wasn’t one.  Time and again I have seen comedians build up their audiences to a peak of energy where they can do nothing but enjoy the humour that is tossed their way only to see that energy dissipate during the interval. Some comedians can survive the interval easily – Dylan Moran and Ross Noble spring to mind – but others find that the magic never returns after the audience has nipped out for a fag or taken on board a critical amount of larger.

Bhoy’s decision not to have an interval was undoubtedly right even if, as he drifted closer to ninety minutes, rather than the seventy five he had declared was his intention at the outset, the collective bladder of the audience was beginning to struggle.

In style Bhoy’s comedy is closer to Billy Connolly than it is to Stewart Lee.  His comedy is always safe. He tackles well worn subjects like the Scots attitude to drink and how cats behave.  His humour never challenges the audience or forces them to think, neither is he evolving the art form as Stewart Lee attempts to do.  Lee is as happy to keep his audience uncomfortable as he is to see them laugh. Bhoy wraps his audience in a warm comfort blanket of laughter and keeps them cosy until the end of the gig.

Bhoy is of mixed race, being half Asian, yet he only fleeting touches on this and never once goes beneath the surface of his racial origins.  At the end of his set you know only a little more about Bhoy than you did at the start, there are no revelations about the darker moments of his life.  His humour is closer to Easy listening than Punk, and whether you like him depends on your taste in comedy.

Walking out of the theatre into a gusty September evening few in the audience can have been disappointed.  Despite his lack of comedic bite he was hugely entertaining and very funny and that, at the end of this or any other day, is what he had set out be.  In a short time he has come a very long way and his acting ability alone could carry him a long way, underneath the clown there is no doubt a very serious actor.  He has obvious talent and, no matter what path he chooses, he will always be worth watching

© John Burns, 2010

Links

• Danny Bhoy
• John Burns at Purple Comedy