You’ll have a job getting into any of James Acaster’s bewildering multitude of London solo shows this March, although if you’re a fan of the subversive comedy superstar – and who isn’t – then by all means sign up for a waiting list, and it looks like his Hackney Empire shows (technically in April) aren’t entirely sold out at time of writing. These dates are, apparently, a basically finished new show, just it doesn’t have a name, with the only description the delightfully flip ‘a brand new show, full of everything you love about James Acaster and more!’.
But you can also catch him at the head of a frankly sensational bill at a charity gig for The Bike Project earlier in the month at the Union Chapel. At time of writing it’s not sold out and as well as Acaster you get Sophie Duker, Janine Harouni, Catherine Bohart, Olga Koch and Jack Barry on the bill.
‘My main goal of the show, and my life, is to clear the name of Yoko Ono,’ says James Acaster, matter-of-factly, at the top of his show. Quite how we get there via examining his love of mariachi music, or the identities of Percy Pig’s mates, we’re not sure. But it all seems to make sense, at the time. Honest.
Three solo shows in, and Acaster’s quickly becoming a reliable Fringe favourite. The Kettering-born comic is quiet, pedantic and refreshingly low-key. He's in no rush to get laughs, his shows are slow-burners, but every carefully chosen word or pause builds up to a sturdy, satisfying punchline.
From Twister-etiquette to French rhyme structures, the Marks and Spencer-donning comic has a knack for flipping observational comedy on its head, studiously examining things most of us have dismissed as inconsequential. His confident, yet gawky, persona is wonderfully aloof, too.
But what Acaster has mastered, which most comics fail at, is structuring an hour-long show. Seemingly throwaway jokes cleverly re-emerge, and no callbacks are crowbarred in. By the end of the hour you’re totally sucked into his minute, quizzical world, where Yoko Ono is addicted to biscuits, and Joe Bloggs is a prat. And it’s a wonderful world to visit.
See 'James Acaster – Lawnmower' at the Edinburgh Fringe
