Review – Stephen K Amos: The Spokesman

The Spokesman is the latest stand-up effort from British comic, Stephen K Amos. Sadly, it feels almost as though Amos has run out of material. He continually falls back on the same old shtick he’s used for years – that Australians are dumb, and also bogans – or perhaps he has just fallen into the trap of playing up to what he became famous for. Either way, by the end of the hour listening to Amos, the audience is pretty thoroughly sick of his ‘bogan’ voice and the faces that go along with it. Overall, this tendency makes the show a letdown.

It seems like such wasted potential, because when he moves on to something different, Amos is genuinely funny. He is quick-witted and has a great sense of comedic timing. He can make the most appalling jokes funny, and like the best comics, he can make an audience member curse their seating position, while the rest of us delight in watching someone else squirm.

All of that said, if you know you like Amos and what he has done in the past, you’re likely to love this, because it’s precisely that. I appeared to be sitting between Amos’s two biggest fans, and they lapped up every second of mildly offensive stereotyping. If you’re easily insulted and Australian, I’d give this one a miss.