Andrew Doyle: Thought Crimes

Setting his stall out immediately Andrew Doyle bounds on stage and states that he’s "interested in politics and is a massive gay", and as such he’s had a pretty troubling last year or so – due more to the former than the latter. He’s a staunch Corbynite (which draws much less cheer from a liberal arts festival crowd than you might expect) and socialist who believes the left has lost their way. On the "massive gay" side of things he still has a bee in his bonnet about the legalization of gay marriage in order to make gay people as miserable as straight ones.

He makes solid points in railing against the redefinition and diluting of terms like "Nazi" that now seem to be thrown at any one that disagrees with the left. It’s just one that a lot of people have already made. This is a common theme for Doyle: he’s an accomplished comedian and his crowd work is frankly excellent but when he goes into preworked routines he loses a little lustre.

The satire isn’t pinpoint enough to really raise eyebrows or huge laughs, and too often he goes after easy targets that are pretty universally loathed – though he is shocked to see a few Ed Sheeran fans in when he goes for the ginger singer’s jugular. Doyle’s "thought crimes" seems to work best when bantering with the crowd, using his natural wit and sharp mind off-hand, rather than the pre-rehearsed material that feels lacking in thought.