Sunil Patel has had around 40 jobs, something not uncommon in today’s world of work. Starting as a collector of skittles for his dad’s pub team when he was nine, to making a documentary for BBC about cryptocurrency, his past jobs make for great material. During lockdown, when live comedy disappeared Patel came up with a list of potential jobs and money making ideas – some great and some truly awful – which make up the meat of the story of Faster Horses.
We learn about the stand-up’s lockdown, spent living alone in a house with a chair with no legs and only one bowl to eat out of. Sensing the need to get some exercise, he purchased Charles Bronson’s prison workout book, a perfect guide to exercising in a confined space. We also learn more about the comedian’s past, including a stint of managing/running a pub into the ground with mates in his 20s. Many people advise against going into business with your friends, and when one of those pals turns out to be a compulsive liar with a drug habit, you can see why.
Patel has a relaxed delivery, with a casual chattiness of a mate down the pub telling you some of his funniest stories. Some anecdotes are more successful than others, with gentle murmurings of laughter rather than out-and-out hilarity but the hour is still entertaining. The show is punctured by the comedian reading some of his ideas to the crowd and us voting whether or not they are viable ideas. A mixture of apps, TV ideas and jobs go from the sublime to the ridiculous and at the end of the show we discover that Patel may be able to add another job to his CV (which I will not spoil for you).