OneTouch Theatre, Eden Court, Inverness, 31 October 2010

IS IT A BIRD? Is it a plane?  Actually no, and it’s not Superman either, it is John Hegley, who is a musician, a poet…or is he a stand up comedian?  Frankly it’s very hard to tell, but the Eden Court audience didn’t care – they loved the Luton poet with all his odd antics.

Hegley’s act is an incredibly inventive blend of so many art forms. As well as the above there are even some sketches (the type you see on bits of paper not Little Britain), although it has to be said that, multi-talented as Hegley is, his drawings are more likely to be destined for the loo than the Louvre.

I have followed Hegley for some time now and first saw him perform at the Edinburgh Fringe about five years ago.  In the intervening years it is clear that he has matured as a performer.  He still has the same dour stage presence that reminds you of a bored middle aged school teacher standing in front of the lower fourth on a wet Wednesday morning. Yet, beware; there is a twinkle in this teacher’s eye.

Hegley’s show is smooth and slick as he focussed on the French origins of his father, exploring the humorous side of French life.   Despite his continental leanings Hegley is quintessentially English in his rumpled and slightly down at heel suit, complete with tie and school teacher glasses.

One of the things Hegley has clearly mastered, since I saw him in Edinburgh, is the art of audience participation.  From the start he divided the audience panto-style and had them singing bits of nonsense songs and even getting them to perform little bits of what might have been jazz mime.  Normally I find such moments cringe-worthy, but Hegley did it with such charm and grace that no one minded joining in.

Hegley is a champion of spectacle wearers and got the bespectacled folk in the audience to produce a rhythm section for him by tapping on their bifocals. Music featured large in Hegley’s performance as he demonstrated his mastery of comic song, accompanying himself on what might have been – I’m no expert – a ukulele.

Despite his act drifting towards stand up and toying with music it is clear that Hegley is first, foremost and last a poet.  His poetry is in the same tradition as that fine Merseyside poet, who has fallen, like a harlot in hard times, to the despicable depths of financial exploitation, the Classic FM voice over, Roger McGough.

Like McGough, Hegley has the ability to surprise his audience with his poems. There is always a twist at the end as he ambushes us with an idea hidden in the shrubbery.  His poems are always funny, sometimes touching, and display the essential quality of all poets, a love of words.  Watching Hegley I was reminded of a breed of entertainer long extinct, the court jester: he would not have been out of place in a spiky hat with bells on and, I’m sure, he would have coaxed a laugh out of the grumpiest of monarchs.

Hegley’s performance is always safe and, although he taunts the audience, he is careful never to offend, and his gentle teasings are always followed by a smile that wins the audience back.  Hegley is certainly a one off and his gentle charm and keen wit ensure that his material is always on target.

There are very few jobs for poets, you rarely see them advertised, and making a living from the spoken word is difficult.  The Poet Laureate, is really the only proper job.   The laureate is the Heavyweight champ of poets and Carol Ann Duffy won that title with a technical knockout in May of 2009.  So it’s not a title that Hegley can fight for and he must ply his trade, the jobbing poet, around the theatres of Britain, making an extra bob or two with classes in prisons that teach blackmailers how to rhyme their menacing letters.

Hegley entertains, not with smut or obscenity, nor with savagely satirising members of the public, or anyone who isn’t actually exactly the same as they are, as many comedians do.  Hegley entertains with his wit, with his skill with words and above all with a sharp comedic intelligence that shines from behind his spectacles.

Hegley demonstrates that poetry is fun something we badly need in these days when the sound bite is king.  Hegley puts the joy back into words something the OneTouch audience clearly appreciated as they chuckled their way through the evening.

© John Burns, 2010

Links

• John Hegley
• John Burns