Place on Bill: 2nd Act
Venue:
Barnstromers – Capitol, Horsham
Date of
show:20th November 2004
To claim that Howard Read is ‘off
the wall’ would be to assume that he was actually on it at some time, whereas
I’d go as far to say I don’t think vertical structures play any kind of
supporting role in his comedy because he is all over the place.
Irreverent and unconventional; he
throws out one liners, absurdities and vegetable related show tunes without care
or consideration as to whether the audience will respond favourably or not and
in fact seems to masochistically revel in how much altitude above head level he
can achieve with some deliveries. He even went to the extreme of threatening the
crowd with an endless supply of dodgy one-liner, song pastiches.
It’s this incessant energy that
carries him through his set along with the more-hit than miss material.
I would imagine that he would not
be an ideal comic for a quiet, intimate venue but certainly someone to keep an
eye out for in a regular club. He had me in stitches.
