Tony Law: Absurdity for the Common People

How crucial are beards in the comedy business? Billy Connolly seemed not quite Billy Connolly during his occasional shaved periods, and thankfully Tony Law’s brief return to facial smoothness is now behind him, although his regrowth is currently attached to an alarmingly sensible haircut; think 'troubled physics lecturer'.

Looks shouldn’t really matter, of course, but a lot of Law’s appeal is visual. There are the outfits—this year it’s a sporty feel, from some completely unnecessary hand apparel to a more revealing wardrobe adjustment later on—and a series of exciting new facial expressions. That beard just adds an extra layer of avuncular confidence to his mad-eyed brilliance.

Absurdity for the Common People is a sort of sequel to last year’s lengthily-titled, newly-sober effort, as the whole show is based on what he insists was the least successful bit of it: his 1970s trampolining career.

Naturally Law indulges numerous other flights of fancy along the way, notably a stint leading bonobo monkeys from a hotel. But there are new methods of expressing them—acoustic guitar! Beatboxing! Shadow puppetry!—and even nods to current affairs. One controversial new trampoline jump he invents causes very familiar familial riffs.

The well of wild ideas remains potent, then, although anyone who’s seen a Law work-in-progress will know that they need serious honing and culling too, and this show is still endearingly loose, in places. A real biographical nugget even slips in along the way.

“I drove garbage trucks in the royal parks,” says Law, late on. “That’s next year’s show.”

The mind boggles.