Rich Hall, Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton - review
Rich Hall always had ‘dreamed of playing the Wulfrun’ – at least that’s what he told the audience – and his ‘dream’ came true when he kept his fans entertained with his unique blend of comedy, satire and observational humour.
Whatever side of the political spectrum you sit, it’s hard not to love the way Hall devours the political elite. And it would probably come as no surprise that Donald Trump was given a good-old roasting.
Clearly no fan of the class system – referring to the idea of lower, middle and upper class labels as nothing more than name tags – he devoured the weird and wonderful world that is our current political landscape that has seen a star of reality TV become arguably the most powerful man in the world.
Touching on Britain’s decision to leave the EU, he succinctly summed up where Europe’s major problems lie – there are no famous people leading the continents' countries.
But Hall was not pleased with how the British media covered the US election and made a beeline for the BBC’s Andrew Neil - he would have preferred someone with more zest for life commenting on such matter.
With the turmoil currently sweeping the world, the issue of guns was also on the agenda last night and the fact he joked – tongue-in-cheek – that Americans were more than happy to go duck hunting with an AK-47 perhaps tells you all you need to know about the comic’s opinion on firearms.
Hall also delved into what life was like being married to a Scouser, who believed she was not afraid of anything – but he was not convinced she would be so confident when faced with a bear in the wild world of Montana, his place of birth.
It’s clear he loves in equal measure the frantic, insane world of America and the laidback, not committal nature of Britain.
Describing different reactions to major disasters – where Americans go into panic mode and start screaming, while Brits let out an audible sigh of anger while processing how much the event is going to cost them – was a particularly funny reference.
Further rants about the pain of standing of little blocks of Lego, all the way to the anger of seeing people shopping in Walmart whilst wearing pyjamas, led to an audible gasp of relief from the audience –it was nice to know it wasn’t just us who got angered by such mundane things.
The latter part of the show introduced the musical side of Hall, who was backed up by a very talented guitarist.
Ad-libbing songs using words shouted out by the audience, while his backing guitarist in turn shouted out words describing different shades of blue – hard to explain, but I think it’s known as ‘call and response’ – it was a great little interlude that showed another side of this talented entertainer.
There was also time for a tribute to The Who guitarist Pete Townsend to round off a wonderful evening. If you get a spare hour or so at home, it would be well worth catching one of Hall’s political/comic BBC 4 documentaries.
