I’m currently half way through Rich Hall’s excellent autobiography Nailing It at the moment and so when I spotted that he was playing the Teviot Debating Hall I had no choice but to snap up a ticket.
Rich Hall’s audience is a little bit older than the average Edinburgh Fringe crowd, I think it’s fair to say. As we’re coralled into a waiting area, before being piped into the way-too-hot Debating Hall, I watch a couple of tetchy situations unfold. There’s a grumpy altercation over a mobile phone dangling into someone’s personal space, then there’s an elderly lady who doesn’t want to move her chair to let another soon-to-be-adience member get past. Wow, I think, Hall’s going to have to work hard to get this bunch laughing.
I needn’t worry – Rich Hall has the entire room eating out of the palm of his hand, actually hooting with laughter, in no time at all. He starts with some Trump stuff that he claims would get him targeted by ICE in the States, before talking about the price of coffee and how he recently got a rifle as a housewarming gift. His wife doesn’t want to relax on the porch of their new cabin (’British people only like to have fun in the garden. It’s not even a garden – it’s a yard!’ he yells.) Then he deconstructs the circular nature of the British film industry and sings us a couple of songs.
An improvised serenade is almost derailed by the required audience interaction, the mundanity of which he exaggerates to great comic effect, and then he performs a number that I reckon only works here, about how difficult it is to pronounce the names of some Scottish towns.
I love watching real comedy veterans on stage – they have a relaxed manner that I think can only come with decades of treading the boards. They’ve made hundreds of audiences laugh, and died dozens of times. We simply don’t scare them, any more. Although Hall does have a great story about a string of tough gigs at the Livingston Rodeo (not Livingston, Scotland!)
The final song is fabulous, written – according to a droll piece of family lore Hall clearly enjoys recounting – by Hall’s uncle.
I can’t recommend Rich Hall’s book, Nailing It, enough – each chapter details a hilarious chunk of his life and career, and I dearly wish I could have seen him do the travelling preacher character he started out with. I also recommend catching the man live, ideally when you’re about half way through the book. At least, that’s what worked for me.