Friday 20 January 2017

Tom Ballard: Boundless Plains to Share, Belvoir

This is, to a certain extent, left wing comfort food. It's a political standup show about immigration, to an audience that, presumably, largely sympathises with it. And it's no offence against Ballard (who's a fine comedian, easily at the level of, say, Samantha Bee or John Oliver) that I'm slightly weary of the echo chamber of things we all know to be true but which never seem to actually turn into positive change.

Anyway. That was the political bit of the review done. For the rest - Ballard presents very well a topic that could be dry or glib. He's not afraid to let the serious bits be serious, but also quite willing to allow humanity and life into the show. There's some clever dynamics with how the show is constructed that keeps it lively and keeps it from being utterly One Man Rants At The Audience About Injustice For An Hour (which I can't talk about much further because, well, that's spoilers). It refuses to be too glib about things either, The jokes are funny, the content is wise, the presenter is charming and clever ... it's just one of those things where it makes me wish the world was better and fear that it isn't.

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