Scott Adams favours a friendly and quite superficial approach to his comedy by sampling his biography for some amusing anecdotes as he meets and greets the audience. For those awaiting his opinions on Corbyn or Johnson there is relatively little meat beyond some startlingly obvious and populist sentiments: ‘Did you ever think we’d have a Prime Minister Johnson?’
Many comedians bemoan the need to name a show nearly one year in advance and this can lead to some incongruous material appearing in sets with outlandish titles. This one seems to promise observations on class and cultural hegemony on this sceptred isle. There is a paucity of shows with this theme, so it is a shame that there is so little of it in this one.
Instead of biting social satire, Adams regales the room with tales of Scottish ancestry and observations about Australia and Essex, none of which dispels the notion that we are attending a corporate event or high-end wedding. After a brief summary at the start of the set, the long-awaited class-based material constitutes an awkward topper wherein Adams suggests ‘revolution’ is the only course of action in the midst of strategic political lunacy.
Despite its title, this show doesn’t stake a claim to addressing society’s most obvious ills in a comedic manner. Other shows at the Fringe have more political commentary and astute observations about power and access to resources, but do not bear the ‘working class’ tag. Adams should not have dwelt too heavily upon this theme and instead, stuck to the biographical material with leeway to develop more robust gags.