<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/?attachment_id=346" rel="attachment wp-att-346"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-346" title="chris_addison(feb12)" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/chris_addisonfeb12.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="200" /></a>We went to see Chris Addison (Mock the Week) on 23rd February. We arrived at the venue with ten minutes to spare only to be told the time on the ticket was wrong and we had to wait for over twenty minutes before being allowed in to take our seats, not a good start.

Thankfully Chris Addison came on and announced that he was his own warm up so we were in for quite a night. In the first half he appeared to be overdosing on adrenalin with some of his humorous comments being lost in asides to himself. He lived up to his reputation of being a middle class comedian who takes the piss out of his own class and hates the coalition government with a vengeance. Such phrases as - “I hate the Tories, they are scum” shortly after chastising Cameron for his sexism and suggesting he's worse than the cartoon stereotype of Silvio Berlusconi who, nudge, nudge “genuinely tried to get young people into politics.” He muses on the recent riots and likens the TV coverage to a new drama series, filmed over three nights and featuring different cities, cleverly poking fun at his own middle class views and perceptions. Chris links each of his themes together in a way that often appears chaotic and unscripted, interspersed with moments of giggling at his own comments. It seems he has rambled off into a completely unrelated topic, and you can wonder where this is going, but he always draws the strands together and delivers on the punch line.

If there's one criticism that I have is that he kept balancing his ascerbic wit with a softening tale an example would be his decrying of the Royal Family only to then say how much he enjoyed the humour displayed by Prince Philip. His material shows a great comic and observational talent, so that even when he is saying things that are controversial, the audience can't help but laugh and to some extent agree with his views. He then goes on to discuss how views are often established whilst very young and cemented in by the choice of paper or media you decide to read or listen too. The message is very profound and delivered in a charming style often poking fun at himself and his beliefs.

We enjoyed the evening tremendously.