![]() The book may be written from a fictional character’s perspective, but it’s impossible not to read it in Acaster’s voice – or, at least, that onstage voice. His tone is lower and he chooses his words deliberately as he sinks deep into his sofa. The person before me on Zoom is far more subdued. While performing, Acaster walks with a mischievous swagger and speaks quickly and confidently, his distinctive voice constantly fluctuating in pitch and peculiar cadences. They taught him the importance of cultivating an onstage persona, which has been a crucial part of Acaster’s comic alter ego. Some of his first major gigs were supporting Josie Long and Milton Jones on their respective tours. He’s cultivated a brand of comedy that punches up at those in power, never down, and has won over fans around the world with his unique brand of comedy – “Your modern, up-to-the-minute, hipster humour”, as Rob Brydon called it on Acaster and Ed Gamble’s food podcast Off Menu.Īcaster began performing comedy in his early twenties in 2008, switching from dreams of performing in bands in his hometown of Kettering to stand-up. Despite his total lack of social media presence, clips of him discussing Brexit and Piers Morgan frequently go viral. Since the release of his Netflix Special series Repertoire in 2019, Acaster has graduated from his status as a popular member of the UK panel-show circuit to being the internet’s favourite comedian. ![]() I was in the audience for the taping of Cold Lasagne in 2019, and it certainly felt like it could have been Acaster’s last ever show. ![]() But fame had brought with it an increased number of hecklers who, when combined with the personal material, were hard to handle. His 2019 tour Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 saw him at his most vulnerable on stage, speaking candidly about his mental health. There were multiple reasons for Acaster not-quite-quitting comedy. Some people were under the impression that I did quit, but I really didn’t.” Really? But the five-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee told one podcast: “Right now, I don’t want to do it again, ever.” His mindset at the time, he says, was about “not putting the pressure on myself to say ‘I have to go back’ or ‘I must never go back’. “I wasn’t going to decide one way or another,” he says from his home in London. He said he’d be “glad” to never do it again. You certainly can't criticise Acaster for that.Ĭlear your schedules for four hours and watch these shows back-to-back.Everyone thought James Acaster had quit stand-up comedy. At one point he cricitises people for "sloppy storytelling". Is it all true? I doubt if he was ever a lollipop man or an ice cream man, but he is so funny I don't really care. During a riff about Shrove Tuesday he dubs crepes "undercover pancakes". Throwaway lines come back and serve further jokes later on. Nobody puts a sentence together quite like Acaster (although I did briefly wonder if relative newbie John Kearns is influenced by his rhythms). I don't mind giving these routines away because Acaster delivers them so well they will still be gut-wrenchingly hilarious.Īs it has become compulsory to say about his work, Recap, like the other shows, is exquisitely crafted. A version of this also crops up in his book Classic Scrapes, so it must have happened. Does he really keep a tally chart of what ducks think of bread (two options - "can't get enough" and "nonplussed")? Elsewhere he has a story about meeting a woman via a game of Twister. Some of his flights of fancy are clearly constructed just for comic effect. He may not be weird but onstage he certainly has a sideways view of life, coming at subjects from bizarre angles. Let's face it, have you ever wondered what it would be like if your whole body was made of the type of skin your lips are made of. His topics of conversation suggest otherwise. " I don't want you to think I'm weird," says Acaster disingenuously during Recap. There is Recognise (2014), Represent (2015), Recognise (2016) and, perhaps most interesting, Recap, which pulls together material from older shows and very cleverly ties some loose threads together. Not one, not two, not three, but four James Acaster shows have just started streaming on netflix under the overall banner of Repertoire.
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