Glenn Wool review

Glenn Wool's ire has previously been, perhaps, too polemical and his shows could feel more like an evangelical rant at his audience than a comedy show for them. Whilst he is certainly in the Premiership for delivering this particular strain of zealotry, it can at times be a bit too heavy on the deep stuff and too light on the laughs. However, Wool appears to have mellowed during his year touring around the world and his performance is all the stronger for it.

In his new show, No Lands Man, he explores the possible reasons that he cracked a smile while a Thai border guard prepared to give him a cavity search. In answer to this question, Wool offers various possibilities, allowing him to riff on a variety of topics both personal and universal. Regardless of what he is discussing, Wool manages to underpin everything with a steady flow of dark material of varying degrees, which is most notably powerful on two occasions - material on Osama Bin Laden's death and a brief discussion on rape. These topics may sound pretty hackneyed but Wool brings a unique perspective and creates some jaw-droppingly black imagery. Whilst this material deals with controversial topics, Wool masterfully navigates his narrative away from the contentious and offensive and instead flirts with these topics in a thought provoking and belly laugh inducing way.

Whilst his material has dark undertones, he also flirts with the surreal and is just as successful in creating fanciful and fantastical images as he is at conjuring up dark and grotesque ones. Imagining all beavers (the animals) bowing down to an all gnawing beaver Messiah named Wendyl makes for some truly bizarre but impressive comedy. Wool manages to expertly blend his different stylings and create a unique on-stage persona.

One slight criticism is that it was a shame to see that more hadn't been made of the montage on the screen as the lecture theatre filled up. Wool has very successfully used this before, but this year it was largely ignored and didn't really add anything or warm up the crowd's expectations. Having said this, it is pretty unimportant in the scheme of things and as soon as Wool bounded onto stage and jumped straight into his set, his confidence and presence more than made the audience alert and eager for the ensuing masterclass.

Equally, one would expect the mention of Michael McIntyre on stage to set off the 'hack' alarm bells at the back of one's mind. However, Wool's passing reference is so laden with tongue in cheek self-deprecation and tacit confidence in his own work. When he says that he won't get on McIntyre's show because his material is too dark, all he really proves is that he has managed to get to the top of his game without commercial TV success.

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Glenn Wool: No Lands Man listing