Josie Long, in some ways, had a pretty good 2016. She wrote and starred in her own Radio 4 sitcom, for example (\u2018Romance and Adventure\u2019); on the other hand, Brexit. It is the latter that fills the bulk of this tour show. Rather than simply detailing why Brexit is a stupid idea, or railing against the people who voted for it, Long approaches the topic from a more personal, but also more ultimately universal, viewpoint. The show is driven by two huge, perhaps unanswerable questions: how to remain optimistic when things are bad and seem to just keep getting worse? And how to talk to the people who passionately believe in the thing you think is destroying the country?<\/p>\n
Long is supported by fast-rising star Tez Ilyas. Tez covers topics as diverse as British Muslim identity and the number of chickens bred specifically for Nando\u2019s, and has the audience in fits. He deals with some unhelpfully talkative audience members in exemplary style, particularly in a hilarious physical response to one woman\u2019s enigmatic comment. (Note to comedy crowds: if a comedian asks you a question, just answer it. Don\u2019t try and be funny, don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be mean to you. Please just let them do their job.) Tez is playing at Manchester\u2019s Frog and Bucket in April and many of tonight\u2019s converted crowd will no doubt be there.<\/p>\n
Josie Long returns for the main show, \u2018Something Better\u2019. Often celebrated for her optimism, enthusiasm and almost total lack of cynicism, combined with a ferocious opposition to injustice, Long\u2019s Brexit-based show addresses a lot of tough questions of identity \u2013 for her, the audience and the nation. She notes that she can no longer say \u201cthere\u2019s more of us than of them!\u201d \u2013 the vote proved that\u2019s not true \u2013 and what good does talking to people who already agree with you do anymore? The show is, in places, tough and searching, but it\u2019s also funny as hell. No other comedian writes jokes like Josie Long\u2019s, and she\u2019s also adept at being very physically silly on occasion. The centrepiece of the show is a ten-minute routine nominally about To Kill A Mockingbird<\/em> that has to be seen to be believed. Long knows her audience, and plays with their expectations of her and themselves in her references and her apparent \u2018message\u2019. The biggest reaction of the night comes in the shape of a huge gasp when Long reveals that Warburtons are huge Tory donors \u2013 \u201cyes, even the crumpets!\u201d<\/p>\n The show does not resolve its central questions, but the fact that it\u2019s even possible to make such a funny hour-and-a-half out of, essentially, asking \u201cbut what on earth do we do now?\u201d is quite something. Long is such a likeable, natural performer that it\u2019s easy to overlook what a subtle writer she is. Despite The Dancehouse being uncomfortably hot, \u2018Something Better\u2019 somehow manages to make us simultaneously feel very uncomfortable at the implications of the questions being posed, but very glad that it\u2019s Josie Long trying to think them through.<\/p>\n Josie Long, \u2018Something Better\u2019, The Dancehouse Theatre, February 24 2017. Josie Long, in some ways, had a pretty good 2016. She wrote and starred in her own Radio 4 sitcom, for example (\u2018Romance and Adventure\u2019); on the other hand, Brexit. It is the latter that fills the bulk of this tour show. Rather than simply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[311,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nJosie Long is currently touring<\/a>.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"