‘I’m the UK’s No 1 James Acaster tribute act!” says Craig Simons, bounding on stage in sparkly jacket and tuxedo T-shirt. But Simons is at a crossroads, fed up with Acaster’s indulgent mental health material and yet doomed merely to parrot it – at least until, finally, he launches a standup career of his own. Such is the conceit of this new touring show by the performer we assume to be the real James Acaster – although, in the manner of his 2014 show (and later Netflix hit) Recognise, in which he posed as an undercover cop posing as James Acaster, this case of tangled identity gets so twisty by the end, who can be sure?!
Picking the bones out of this conceit by the 41-year-old, the show appears to stem from similar anxieties to those that prompted its predecessor, Hecklers Welcome – which is to say, Acaster’s ambivalent feelings about his standing as a celebrated standup comic. According to Simons, Acaster has “painted himself into an artistic corner”, harping on about his own anxieties, ungrateful for his extraordinary success. The Simons alter ego allows Acaster to get back to (relatively) uncomplicated gags, and venture some trenchant political comedy, while giving him plausible deniability if that seems too first-base for an act noted by every single critic, apparently, for his cleverness.
