Rhod Gilbert and The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 2009
Rhod Gilbert: The Man With The Flaming Battenberg Tattoo: Venue 150@EICC, Edinburgh, 2012
Always Be Comedy: The Tommyfield Pub, Kennington, London, 2018
I have seen Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert live on tour. In 2009’s Rhod Gilbert and The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lynhurst which I saw at the Pleasance Courtyard in Edinburgh, his stage presence was that of a man driven to the brink of breakdown in a maelstrom of angst who was scarily intense and extremely funny. Electrical appliances hoovers and Innocent Smoothies all came under fire in a fast paced show of high woes.
Gilbert returned in 2012 with The Man With The Flaming Battenberg Tattoo. Playing a bigger theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe meant that he could once again let rip with outbursts and rants at the vast audience. This time Jobsworths who don’t do their job, hygiene and travel perils were all targets in a brilliantly structured, hilarious show.
Gilbert did a full preview show at Always Be Comedy in September 2018. His performance this evening was outstanding and one of the funniest things I have ever seen at the club. From the start with me removing a piece of chewing gum from the bottom of his shoe turning this unlucky mishap into a hilarious full blown routine to the honesty in what he was saying on stage to an extremely funny piece about an unfortunate incident in a hospital, the master comic returned after a six year break to a well deserved standing ovation after an hour a half on stage. If this performance is anything to go by, his comeback tour in 2019 entitled The Book of John will be amazing. I was still laughing out loud on the bus home and wish him every success with the new show.
When Gilbert appears on stage, he is one of the best storytelling, angry comedians to go and see live.