Intelligent, Improvised Banter From Comedian Tom Allen At Soho Theatre
Looks like this article is a bit old. Be aware that information may have changed since it was published.
Last Updated 12 April 2018
Here’s an eminently grabbable chance to catch waspish comedian Tom Allen midway between his ten-year Edinburgh novitiate and a permanent seat on every Radio 4 panel show until radio is no more. Allen has already made his name on the circuit and his laconic, gay-man-in-the-street (as long as it has a Marks) persona is finely honed.
He is so good at the improvised banter with the front-row audience he might have learned his craft at Dame Edna’s knee rather than in the National Youth Theatre, but fortunately he’s emerged as a smart and individual voice. Check out his terrific podcast with Suzi Ruffell.
What isn’t new, though, is this show: it’s more or less exactly his one-hour Edinburgh set from 2017 and if we heard it right, he’s shifting his routine from mainly acerbic observation of the twilight world of suburbia to more visibly-rehearsed ranting in a louder voice. Makes the show a bit unbalanced, as well as being suggestive of Eddie Izzard.
He weaves a good story, though, and nothing he does is less than perfectly enunciated and intelligently compacted — unlike a lot of fringe standups, Allen doesn’t waste words — and the connection between what happens at an after-school birthday party to his experience as ‘second token gay’ on a hen weekend is masterly.
Highly recommended. If you didn’t see it in Edinburgh.
Tom Allen: Absolutely, Soho Theatre, Dean Street, W1. Until 21 April, then 11-21 July 2018. Tickets £11-22.
