The Pub Landlord, Al Murray’s stage persona, is a character known by lots and is played by Murray to absolute perfection; having worked in the pub trade myself, the caricature of the local publican is so familiar.

Kicking the evening off, Al had Chris Ramsey supporting, and after checking that we could understand his Geordie accent, he went off like a rocket and the audience really seemed to warm to him. Even when talking about a health problem he’d had recently (“No-one buys prune juice for the taste!”), the audience stuck with him. Very likable.

Then it was Murray’s turn. Driving onto the stage with his mini pub-mobile, he gets the evening off with a pint. The first twenty five minutes or so was him talking almost exclusively with his front rows, and no-one could have felt disappointed by this (except maybe the guy he sent out twice for drinks). His mind is blindingly quick when talking to the punters, and had the rest of the audience in stitches with the banter that ensued.

He was then giving tips on how guys can successfully chat up women, all done in his own tongue-in-cheek, misogynistic way. And that’s the thing about Murray, is some of the things he says might normally be frowned upon as being a little un-PC, but because of his delivery, no-one seems to really mind and he just carries on. He got into almost a philosophical discussion about the contradiction of human nature. He then started discussing something which, for me, always seems a little trite and lazy, and that’s the differences between men and women. It’s a subject that has surely been done to death now.

There were a few parts that I felt went on a bit too long, and went well passed the point of “yes, ok, move on now.” Part of his chat up line routine (“women like sauce”) went on too long, and his encore, whilst having a brilliant ending, had a build up that left people trying to remember what his point had been to start off with.

Overall though, it was a great night’s entertainment, even if just for the randomness of plucking someone from the front row to run around on stage with a giant nut and tail, pretending to be a squirrel.

SL

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