Stephen K Amos - The Best Medicine

Stephen K Amos is a talented comedian with has a strong stage presence. Unfortunately, his material’s is so weak that he has to rely on charisma to carry his show.

At one point he boasts of having recently finished recording his own BBC TV series. Perhaps this left him limited time to write his standup set, but that is no excuse for the feebleness of some of the gags. Not only does he include a barely reworked version of the "why the long face" horse gag, he chides the audience for groaning.

When other jokes fall flat he complains that most of us must be too thick to understand them. This is dangerous ground and far too often his confidence turns nasty – like when he discovers one of the audience is Australian and launches into a poor caricature of their accent with no comic content.

Or when he asks an audience member, presumably returning from the urinals, where another chap who left is. “Missing,” the man replies, which you’d think would be the end of it. But no, Amos launches into a vicious “So you think you’re funny?” diatribe directed at the already embarrassed widdler. What seems sad is that this riposte would be effective and justified in response to an abusive heckler. Here it was unnecessary, yet Amos was happy for any flimsy excuse to show it off.

Amos gives a commanding performance, though to justify his complete lack of humility in future he’ll need considerably better material.