Frankie's first of five night Irish Tour at Dublin's Vicar Street venue
If I were a referee I would be Graham Poll. Why? Because after my visit to Vicar Street last night I would have given Glaswegian comic Frankie Boyle three yellow cards and one red, he was that good. Of course by 'good', I mean surprisingly bad.
I'll confess to be no comedy guru, but I know the difference between a Bill Hicks and say... a Roy Chubby Brown. Last night's performance from fun-time Frankie made 'Chubs' bigoted 'angry-man' performances look like the work of a genius.
Although in fairness to Frankie, he brought along an excellent warm-up act in the marvellous Craig Campbell from Canada (yes, it is a very Canadian name isn't it?). The Billy Connelly look-a-like had the Irish crowd in stitches with some interesting 'Dublinisms' as well as tales of how he almost got a kiss in Glasgow. But, it was the headline act the sold-out crowd were there to see. Step forward Frankie, son.
The former 'Mock The Week' funnyman had some great material. His hecklers were put down with hilarious ease. Ripping the piss out of the 'The Britz' also went down well with the home faithful. But much of this was lost amidst his perverted obsession to focus on hard-hitting gags on sex-abuse, Down's Syndrome and Baby P. Much of the routine tended to be just one endless dreary drive down the same miserable Fritzl family infested road... with admittedly, a few enjoyable speed bumps along the way. In his autobiography he claims to be a big fan of Monbiot and Chomsky. It was a crying shame he didn't focus more on political subjects.
Looking back, I still don't know what to make of Frankie's performance. He is no doubt a very talented comedian with a huge target audience out there. Infact one in which I would still include myself in. But, last night I was just disappointed to leave the Thomas Street venue questioning the length of time spent on 'sex-abuse' sensationalisms rather than giggling cheekily at some expected outrageous gags. However, not to the extent I had anticipated.
There was no need for goal-line technology last night. Frankie Boyle had rather emphatically crossed it already himself.
