At the start of his show, Reginald D Hunter recalls how his daughter recently saw him performing. While she enjoyed his skilful set, she told him that he does not do "jokey jokes". There's no doubt he can write offspring-pleasing zingers, but the contemplative American is too much of a virtuoso to resort to wall-to-wall jokey jokes.
Hunter's latest tour is titled The Man Who Could See Through Sh*t. It is a crude but bold title that neatly encapsulates his philosophy. Hunter has no time for trifling quotidian matters. His set moves elegantly from big topic to big topic, concisely skewering each subject then moving on.
He has lived in the UK for nearly three decades and wryly notes how time has altered his perspective. When he left Atlanta he thought his mother was wrong about everything. Now he realises she was right about everything. The quip has a welcome echo of Mark Twain's famous quote about his father: "The older I got, the smarter he got.”
Hunter has a unique stand-up style. There are no contrived segues or transitions. After each section he simply pauses, lets the laughter settle and then moves on. Lesser acts might not be able to pull this off but he is a charismatic presence, despite his fears of morphing from sexy Reg into cuddly "Uncle Fluffy".
There is politics, of course. A robust swipe at Rishi Sunak here, a tart takedown of cancel culture there. While most comedy audiences want to have fun, he has spotted a new subset: the "recreationally offended". Hunter caters for those with a riff about Queen Camilla in which he imagines her speaking like a hip hop princess at the Coronation. More shocking, however, is the revelation that he is a fan of The Crown.
It is only when he strays from his storytelling format that momentum slips. An odd motif is an account of surreal dreams he has had about celebrities such as Will Smith and Lizzo. And a house-lights-up audience vox pop about gender attitudes does not quite click. Maybe there were too many bashful couples on first dates to generate honest answers.
Yet despite his daughter's critique he actually does do some jokey jokes, such as a superb gag about a conspiracy theorist going to heaven and asking God who shot JFK. Hunter just prefers to tackle big ideas. This is a show that will send you away smiling and also a show that will send you away discussing what you've just heard.
It takes a truly talented comedian to make you laugh even when you disagree with them. Hunter is that kind of comedian.
Leicester Square Theatre, to Saturday; leicestersquaretheatre.com
