Ironworks, Inverness, 23 July 2011

AL MURRAY burst on to the stage at the Ironworks in a shower of lager.  Throughout the whole show he drenched both himself and any members of the audience who were unfortunate enough to come within range with pints of his beloved golden nectar.

For those in the front row Murray was merciless in his assault, with no one being safe from insult or ridicule. Murray’s style is a full frontal, full on campaign of vitriol launched at anyone who comes into the cross wires of his very non-PC wit.

Al Murray Pub Landlord

We found out more about everyone in the front three rows than we ever need to know.  Every occupation was bludgeoned by Murray; there seemed to be an awful lot of fabricators in the audience, while nurses and secretaries were also well represented.

Murray reserved his harshest attacks for a group of four off-duty policemen who he made suffer for every parking ticket they ever issued.

What you have to remember, and it is sometimes difficult, is that Murray is playing a character.  Over the years he has homed his persona of the Pub Landlord to perfection.

All of us have, at one time or another, been subjected to the opinions of a bigoted publican as he serves us his personal brand of home truths along with the pints of bitter.

I can remember being thrown out of a pub once because the young woman I was with wanted to drink from a pint glass.  Something I’m sure Murray’s character would have wholeheartedly approved.

Character comedians are a rare breed these days, with the majority of comedians relying on observations from their own tortured existences for their comedy.  Murray is reminiscent of Warren Mitchell’s invented bigot, Alf Garnet, as he delivers his satirical take on the right wing, chauvinistic views of his character.

In Scotland, Vladimir McTavish’s Bob Doolally, the drunken soccer manager, is perhaps the closest we have to this characterisation.  Alongside the Rev Obediah Steppenwolf’s dissolute minister from America’s deep south or Miles Jupps’ caricature of an upper class English gentleman.

Murray’s humour is certainly not for the faint hearted, although most of the mainly middle-aged male audience knew what they were going to get, and loved every minute of it.  If you had wandered into the Ironworks on Saturday expecting to see an average comedian making gentle safe gags about the standard topics of relationships and the difficulties of making a living out of comedy you would have received a considerable shock listening to Murray’s diatribe.

Beneath the bluster of Murray’s Pub Landlord there is clearly a highly intelligent and clever comedian, although you do have to look fairly hard to see it.  Murray’s parody of the bigoted attitude of his character was never so well displayed as when he declares England to be the centre of the universe and then goes on a world tour, insulting every other nationality it is possible to consider.

The Ironworks was sold out on Saturday night and this is the more remarkable when one realises that, only a few weeks ago, he sold out the same venue with a similar appearance.

“This is not a comedy gig,” he declares from the stage with his characteristic swagger, “this is, in fact, a motivational lecture to remind everyone of how lucky they are to be British.”

Despite his constant mockery of other nations he never once strayed into anything that could be construed as racist and thereby avoided anything that could be truly offensive.

Murray has an exceptionally strong stage presence and the ability to make his material appear completely spontaneous.  Clearly this is not the case as many of his put-downs and insults to occupations he considers to be unmanly are obviously well rehearsed and finely honed bits of material.

Murray, however, has the ability to “fake sincerity and spontaneity”, and if you can do that, as Groucho Marx once said, you’ve got it made.  At the end of the night a drunken gentleman stepped on stage and asked for a photograph of himself with Murray.  Well, it wouldn’t be a comedy gig in Inverness without some drunken individual disrupting the show would it?

This the comedian simply took in his stride, and even managed to bring out the humour in the situation when he pointed out that the gentleman concerned had his camera the wrong way round.

Murray’s character of the Pub landlord has been around for a while now and has been his stock in trade since 1994.  Despite the character’s longevity he shows no sign of losing his appeal and he provided the Ironworks audience with an uproarious evening of entertainment which had the audience – even the front three rows – begging for more at the end.

Murray is a superb comedian and if you have the stomach for it, the Pub Landlord guarantees an entertaining and hugely funny show. Doubtless the larger drenched lout will continue to sell out the Ironworks for many years to come.

© John Burns, 2011

Links

• Ironworks
• John Burns at Purple Comedy