Comedy review: Lee Mack
Lee Mack: Hit The Road Mack
King’s Theatre, Glasgow
***
His live act hasn’t changed drastically in that time, and he combines a Mr Primetime slickness with a straightforward desire to entertain that betrays his origins as a Pontins Bluecoat.
The quality of the material isn’t end of the pier, but there’s a certain throwback nostalgia for jokes, proper jokes, occasionally about ‘er indoors and a bit of blue.
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Hide AdWhat elevates his act is a delivery that’s irresistible, the sheer number of gags packed in evidence of a committed work ethic, but at the same time executed with classic showmanship, punchlines maximised with theatrical glances and appeals to the crowd.
Pacing the stage like a metronome, Mack spins on his heels to cast his lines out, like an angler.
Capably, he embraces the consistency of the old-school joke-tellers while subverting and playfully exaggerating their hoarier attitudes and sexist overtones, opening with a knock-knock... joke of all things, and evoking Operation Yewtree as a peril of all BBC employees like himself.
An encore question and answer session unnecessarily pads an 80-minute show, and he had to scramble quickly on Wednesday night when a hilarious, deadpan response threatened to steal his thunder.
His crowd work is otherwise attentive and sparky though, his magic trick flirtations with a woman in the front row encapsulating his cheekily risqué appeal.
Seen on 29.10.14