Jimmy Carr

Telling Jokes 3/5

Watching Jimmy Carr often feels like tuning into a 12-round punch up where you heavily favour one guy over the other. You cheer when they hit the right spot, try to ignore the air punches and, overall, hope that no one gets too hurt during the whole affair. Carr would be an old fashioned slugger of course (you could hardly get a more simple title than Telling Jokes), pounding away trying to boss matters and this time around he hits just enough knock out blows to keep you happy.

There is, to be fair to him, one very modern nod on show when he uses a Power Point presentation for one ten-minute meander. This section may well be lapped up by the Bloomsbury theatre audience in London, but the general atmosphere of the gig is hard to gauge, with fear seemingly rampant whenever the quickfire comedian trains his eyes on the audience for some interaction.

To get the bigger matters out of the way, those easily offended will indeed be shaking that cup of mint tea by the end of this; misogyny delivered with clinical accuracy is in decent supply. However, those who claim ignorance at this stage – particularly in the wake of the furore over Carr’s recent Paralympics gag gone wrong – are fooling no one. This is a comedian who is many people’s guilty pleasure and considering there are literally hundreds of jokes within the 90 minute act most will find a few nuggets to enjoy. Overall though, as the man says, it’s a good set not a great set.

Extras include half-hour Comedy Central special, some outtakes and, in what we think is a nice touch, Carr’s ‘Twitter Diary’.