August 10, 2026 at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Wine Bar
This show won Phil Nichol the Perrier Award in 2006 (actually, he was the first person to win it after it was no longer called the Perrier Award, but it sounds less impressive to say this show won the if.comeddie Award). It was originally written as a protest show against the Iraq war, so ideally it would be completely irrelevant twenty years later, but of course it’s more relevant than ever.
I’ve seen a recording of the 2006 show online, and was curious about whether he’d update it for the reprise – like the aforementioned John-Luke Roberts, who recently re-staged ten years worth of shows, but changed some things around to reflect the passage of time. But Phil Nichol changed almost nothing in The Naked Racist (save for one word, wisely altered), and it’s amazing how well it holds up.
This story is essentially one of catharsis. Of the build-up of years of frustration with a society that tells us we’re supposed to accept its conditions as normal. Of releasing it all in one wild night, with various wild consequences, which I’d find difficult to believe had really happened, if I hadn’t seen plenty of other shows by Phil Nichol. I’ve seen enough of Phil Nichol’s comedy to believe that just about anything has happened to him. The Naked Racist is a true story.
Watching this show live lets the audience share in this catharsis, and Nichol almost desperately works to make that happen. He engages us, not in crowd work by physically (don’t worry, he doesn’t make anyone come up on stage, and he’s pretty good about getting consent before touching anyone – that’s one element that may have been updated since 2006), asking us to get on board, to understand, to believe in it. The ending is raucous and does involve everyone, in an exciting and high-energy way.
And he gets naked. That’s hardly a spoiler, because this is labelled as the show in which Phil Nichol gets naked. But there is so much else going on that by the time it’s over, the nudity seems like the least shocking part.
Phil Nichol: The Naked Racist – 21:45 at Gilded Balloon Teviot, Wine Bar until August 18th. Tickets here.
Dave Baillie