 |  |  |  |  |  | |||||||||||||
|
archive |
about
us |
links |
contact |
current | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Nige
- Cigs, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll Group: Keith Karter |
| James Gledhill | |
|
We meet Keith Carter's fantastic comic creation sitting bleary-eyed in his bedsit skinning-up and composing the set list for his band, The Strange Lumps. Evidence of his 'bezzie mate', Dogshit Barry's 'chronic obsessive onanism' can be heard coming from the other side of the wall. Nige is a foul-mouthed drug-addled Scouse dole-scrounger, the reductio ad absurdum of the Scouse social stereotype. As this would lead one to expect there's a focus on drugs ('we don't have a drug problem in Liverpool, we have lots of drugs'), teenage mums and being on the dole ('you don't want a job, it's addictive, it changes your character'). Most of it's in gloriously bad taste with the anecdotes scaling the heights of the grotesque, with tales of the bodily growths that inspired the name of his band and his incontinent Granny with ill-fitting glass eyes who lost her hand in a mincer. But Nige's engaging and charismatic persona means that he easily pulls it off. Things get even better when he picks up his guitar with, amongst others, a darkly hilarious parody of a depressive why-not-end-it-all indie song. The bleakness of everyday existence at times gives way to inspired bouts of surrealism and absurdity. A promise to pass his joint round the room fails to materialise as he falls into a paranoid hallucination. There's also a cautionary tale about a heckler who hadn't reckoned on Nige's time traveling abilities, talking pasties and his fantasy about being a superhero. Nige's shambling exterior belies comic writing of immense invention, effortlessly interwoven with inspired ad-libbing, razor-sharp repartee and caustic put-downs. One felt in the presence of a comedy master with Carter embarking on rambling flights of improvisation, only to bring things right back on track without missing a beat. He had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. Under cover of this he even manages to insinuate a bit of telling social commentary. This audience was small, but on this evidence it won't be like that for long. 3 August to 25 August.
| |