This Review is from August 2024
I wouldn’t sit and read a book of poems, no matter how brilliant the poet. Poetry, for me, needs to be spoken, or if required, shouted out loud. A passionate performance that lifts words off a page. Poetry is audible.
Before I left home, I told my pall Louis that I was going to see a poetry show at the Fringe…
“I’m going to see Elvis McGonagall’s new show, ‘Gin & Catatonic?’
“I don’t like gin, is there beer?”
“It’s a poetry gig. He’s a Scottish left-wing comedian and stand up poet.”
“This is why normal people hate the Fringe.”
And, yes, Louis would hate this show… he can only just about tolerate comedians who appear on GB News, or TalkSport.
Elvis McGonagall gives no truck to people on the right of politics. The performer’s (probably correct) assumption is that the audience agrees with him. This is not a show that seeks to persuade or argue a point, we are already convinced. And we agree the hell out of this show for an hour.
He revels in collapse of the Tory government he so hated. He has some great material on Boris Johnson in particular, “…who could have predicted that a lazy, slap dash, dog ate my homework, smirking schoolboy, cartoon Billy Bunter would be a terrible Prime Minister?” Well, quite.
Other targets are as you’d expect, including Trump and Farage. He has a very funny and original suggestion for a redesign of the England football kit.
It may be because I saw the show very early in the run, but between poems he speaks very quickly, which doesn’t give time for every point, or every joke, to land. For me he could do with cutting some material and slowing up a little. It’s a content heavy show and he seems to be rushing to get through it all. This is a shame; he often loses me a bit.
But he’s a brilliant poet, performing at his best when he gets angry. The rise of populism, the impact of capitalism on the planet earth and the people living on it, life and death… he even quotes from the Book of Revelation at one point.
His offering called Under the Influence is a suitable finale, which offered a hint of optimism, a smidgen of hope, for this turbulent world.
Martin Walker
Podcast interview with Elvis McGonagall
Reviews of Elvis McGonagall: Gin & Catatonic? collated by the British Comedy Guide HERE
Tickets HERE
Elvis’ Profile and Social Media HERE
