My jaws are still aching this morning following the Free Speech Union Comedy Benefit at the Backyard Comedy Club last night in Bethnal Green. This was comedy like it used to be: offensive, insightful and most importantly, hilarious.
The Free Speech Union, the brainchild of Toby Young (now Viscount Young of Acton), was formed after his own painful brush with cancel culture in 2018. In only seven years, it has gained over 55,000 members and supporters and, as an indication of the state of free speech in our once great democracy, this year alone fought over 3,000 cases. The number of full-time staff increases in-line with membership, and the number of cases where people have been pulled up, ticked off, and even sacked for saying something perfectly legal, but which upset a snowflake within the vicinity.
I made my way to the Bethnal Green venue with grandson and fellow TNC columnist Jack. Having often seen the view of the stage at the club when viewing its Comedy Unleashed nights on YouTube, it was good to be there for a live event. Comedy Unleashed was established by free speech warrior Andrew Doyle, as an antidote to the lukewarm and restrained offerings masquerading as comedy that is now served up by the mainstream TV channels, and in most (former) comedy clubs across the UK.
Thus, Comedy Unleashed, with whom the Free Speech Union event was staged, has provided a platform for many cancelled comedians. Three of them were on the bill last night.
Hosted by polymathic genius Dominic Frisby, the bill included Scottish comedian Leo Kearse and local lad Andrew Lawrence – both of whom have been cancelled by mainstream comedy venues. Also on the bill were Toby Young and John Armstrong.
Frisby, as well as compèring, filled in with some of his own material. His style is satirical and polemical, sometimes described as ‘intellectual comedy’. His trademark involves making a statement, pausing and letting his listeners fill in the gap. The audience is usually laughing before he delivers the punchline. He is a master at warming up audiences and usually works his way along the front row offending as many people as he can in the process. So far, they seem to take it in good spirit.
One of Frisby’s trademarks is his ukulele-accompanied topical songs, and we were treated to a couple of these. He performed his famous Twelve Days of Christmas which got a roar from the audience – very much a home crowd – when he announced it. The song involves the singer being given, in line with the days of Christmas, an increasing amount of alcohol by his true love and becoming increasingly inebriated as he delivers the song. I realise my description may be somewhat lacking, but see it for yourselves on YouTube.
First to follow was Leo Kearse who delivers a kind of comedy which is uniquely Scottish and, frequently, at the expense of his countrymen. His take on the Bondi beach slaughter was hilarious but not, of course, at the expense of the victims. His work-up to the conclusion that, perhaps, Islam did lie behind the killings was masterful, and he took a swipe at all those virtue signallers who said that we must not jump to conclusions about the motivation of the killers. Kearse worked in material from some of his old routines about how Covid-19 appeared to extend life in Scotland and his famous fat activists sketch. If you have not seen Leo Kearse before then check his work out on YouTube.
Toby Young took to the stage next and, while not a professional stand up, does a good impression of one. This is his second outing on the Backyard Comedy Club stage; his first hilarious routine being delivered at a Comedy Unleashed event. Toby used the success of the Free Speech Union to frame his material, which took in the Labour government and its leading lights such as Starmer, Reeves and Lammy. He suggested that the greatest threat to democracy came, not from the far right but from the current government, given their proposals to abolish trial by jury.
Toby was followed by John Armstrong, a mathematician and member of the London Mathematical Society. He had played a role, presumably supported by the Free Speech Union, to make the London Mathematical Society abandon their ludicrous inclusivity policies regarding the use of pronouns with transgender people. Not a professional stand up and looking like a typical boffin, Armstrong’s set was hilarious both in terms of content and due to the incongruity between his appearance and the content. His exploration of the ‘decolonisation of mathematics’ was a masterclass in demolishing stupidity.
Last to take the stage, and much anticipated, was Andrew Lawrence. Lawrence is uninhibited and makes every effort to be offensive. But his self-deprecating style, cringeing at his own jokes, is endearing. As he was on home ground, instead of offending, he brought the house down with some of his more outrageous material. For a taste of Lawrence see him in action on YouTube.
I say, ‘on home ground’, but I was sat next to one ‘away supporter’. He told me he was not a Free Speech Union member and was there, under duress, with his father. And he wasn’t joking. He spoke loudly to his father at several points. At others, he had his head on his knees and his hands to his ears and shuffled about in a way that reminded me precisely of sitting in the home stand at our local football stadium with an away supporter beside me. You can almost feel the disappointment every time the home team is doing well.
He left for a prolonged period, much to my relief, but returned just in time to experience Andrew Lawrence in full flow. I overheard him say to his father ‘You know, this chap would be cancelled by most places’. It was all I could do to resist turning to him and saying, ‘Mate, that is precisely the fucking point!’.
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
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