Tipped as what could be this year’s comedy festival’s hidden gem, there certainly was a buzz around Andrew Lawrence. Following a double Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination and a UK Headline Act Chortle Award nomination, Lawrence has embarked on his first UK tour.
A special late night showing of his “Too Ugly For Television” tour at Lincoln’s Drill Hall, on Friday October 8th, sees around 100 people in attendance. Not a big audience by any standard, but enough to keep the show intimate and not empty.
Despite not being one of the biggest names in comedy, he knows exactly what he’s doing on stage – even if it doesn’t always seem that way.
Lawrence is keen to point out that he is not misanthropic, but a “people person”, and if he sees another review describing himself in such a manner then bad things will happen.
Unlike your conventional comedian, Lawrence’s set isn’t packed full of jokes, but musings — opinions on various facts of life, usually his own, and why everything is wrong with the world.
In a Bill Hicks style, Lawrence launches a tirade of abuse at the police, KFC, and teenagers on their phone.
More often than not you find yourself mesmerised by the 90 second rants that Lawrence delivers with such sharp wit and precision. You forget he’s a comedian, not a political speaker.
After an hour of anecdotes, rants, and intense crowd interaction – often creating intentionally awkward situations for the audience, such as asking a man when he’ll marry his girlfriend – Lawrence winds the set down with a sing song.
This song, however, is the Benny Hill theme tune, which he insists everyone sings or he’ll shove faeces into their face. Of course the audience sing, not just because of the threat, but as a surreal thank you to Lawrence for the fantastic comedy he brought to Lincoln. Hopefully he’ll be back soon.