‘We’re here, folks, to laugh”, and “See? We’re laughing!” There’s a lot of this reflexive shtick at the start of Stephen K Amos’s touring show: lots of thinking aloud about laughter, and reminding us that’s what we’re here to do. One routine asks whether and why animals laugh, and another – all amygdala this and endorphins that – considers what laughter does to our brains. Yet another drolly explores the Venn diagram that unites the laugh, the orgasm and the sneeze.
This all bespeaks a certain confidence from the veteran that his 75-minute offering will keep the laughter flowing. And it does, if not in the most adventurous way. Later in the show he tells us that Now We’re Talking! is a departure for him; “I wanted to be more honest.” But the show is notable not for the novelty of its thinking, or any sense that we’re being granted intimacies. Its hallmark is convivial, consensual good fun, in which Amos ventures orthodox opinions and relatable observations about a-changin’ times, social media and dumbed-down modernity.
So after the laughter material, the show scrolls back to Amos’s youth, the son of Nigerian immigrants navigating casual racism, harsh parental discipline and TV with three channels only and a night-time curfew. Compare that to nowadays, where everyone’s dimwit opinions are freely broadcast. “I’m not saying it was better in the old days,” protests Amos, reluctant to seem like a grumpy old man. But if it’s not what he’s saying, it’s what he’s implying.
But at least he’s doing so amusingly. It may rely on fairly cheap funny-accent humour, but it’s hard to resist his routine about an African newcomer to the UK encountering a meat raffle. Elsewhere, there’s a twisty number about the Dunning-Kruger effect, by which the ignorant overestimate their own intelligence. The thumbnail sketch of the comic’s upbringing, meanwhile – the home economics classes and unglamorous rubber-hose shower attachments – brings the 1970s pungently back to life. It may be familiar standup fare. But given Amos’s newfound interest in the science of laughter, there’s enough here to ensure his own show might serve as a case study.
