There are some stand-up comedians whose name you have heard mentioned or have seen plastered in posters all around the city’s walls that, for whatever reason, don’t appeal to you. You feel like they might not be funny or interesting, or even they look like they promise much, but won’t be able to deliver. Rhod Gilbert is not one of them.
His comedy timing is perfect, his on the spot gags are priceless (sometimes even better than his rehearsed stuff), and his observations so sharp, that an hour flies by without noticing. Gilbert brings the audience into his show, and even gets them, in some cases, to reveal things they might have never done before, example of his approachability and likeable qualities.
Because Rhod Gilbert is just one of us and, in his show, we have all died and gone to the heaven’s gate, waiting our turn to speak to God and see if we are allowed into Heaven or sent to Hell. With this premise, Gilbert has the freedom to analyse (and satirise) religion, relationships and the Welsh, all within the comfort of knowing we might all think the same about all these. And even when someone in the audience challenges his ideas, he is still capable of answering without freezing, disconcerted, on how to continue.
Rhod Gilbert is a comedy time bomb waiting to be allowed to explode into the big circuit. His, self-confessed, portaloo of a venue is not big enough for a stand-up artist of this calibre. Allow him to reach a bigger audience. He more than deserves it.
4/5
Adrian G. Velazquez
