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| | | Jordan Brookes review – a disconcerting deep-dive into existential morality | | by Brian Logan Jun 1, 2022 | | Soho theatre, London
The comedian’s latest show is quarried from the darker subsoil of a disturbed soul, delivered by a man whose warmest smile still stirs a tincture of unease It’s quite the project, converting what Jordan Brookes does on stage – experimental, unstable, disconcerting – into something that would “work on Live at the Apollo”. But that’s Brookes’s stated ambition with This Is Just What Happens, his first show since the award-winning I’ve Got Nothing, three summers ago. His weirder excesses are reined in here, in what – apart from the usual formal trickery – is at least recognisable as standup. But let’s not get carried away: this remains comedy quarried from the darker subsoil of a disturbed soul, delivered by a man whose warmest smile still stirs a tincture of unease. No one is mistaking Brookes for Russell Howard any time soon. The show’s jagged spine is provided by a particular insult directed at Brookes in 2019. It’s nothing, he keeps telling himself: he’s over it now. But the whole show gives the lie to that, as the 36-year-old worries at the epithet in question, advertises to the audience – and himself – what a swell guy he is, then ends up re-enacting and chewing over the behaviour that pissed his critic off in the first place. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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