Topical comedy meets a trip down memory lane at Rory Bremner’s touring show, where gags about – and impersonations of – Trump, Starmer et al rub shoulders with little parps from the far-flung past. Russell Grant, Keith Floyd and Robin Cook – remember them? Bremner does, and remembers the jokes he once told about them too. Prompted by onstage interlocutor Fred MacAulay, he summons them back to life here, in An Evening With … format that includes standup and sketch alongside chat-show banter and questions from the crowd.
It’s perfectly entertaining, especially for those of us who were there first time around. (MacAulay makes a running joke of the confused 17-year-old in the front row.) Bremner is nothing if not a slick raconteur. Too slick, arguably: I sometimes wished he’d answer a question from the heart rather than from his mental Rolodex of well-buffed anecdotes. He does that once, when prompted to discuss his ADHD, and his commitment to destigmatising the condition. Elsewhere, it’s smooth repartee about schmoozing the king, struggling with Noel Edmonds’ voice, and prank calls he once made in character as Nelson Mandela.
