Review-Tom Rhodes-Comedy.hk
2-11-13
By: Meaghan McGurgan
This is my first time writing a review for standup. It's not an easy thing to do. Standup comedy is a truly subjective art form. What works for me as an audience member can totally fail for the person next to me and what works for the four guys in the row in the back may not work for me. Tom Rhodes is a very well known comedian in the US. He's known as the "bad boy of comedy" but as we learned last night from the show he's not a fan of the moniker. He's had specials on Comedy Central, he had a sitcom in the nineties and was a late night talk show host in Holland. (Random, right?) Last night his dream came true! He played to a room of thirty or so at Cyberport. You could tell the minute he hit the stage he was ready to not let us forget how proud he was of this moment in his career.
There were opening acts last night as well. Three local comedians took the stage to help warm up the crowd. We listened to stories from David Finley, who was a very warm and friendly guy from Scotland. Andrew Chu was up next and awkwardly shared with us his quest to date a white woman. Homegrown staple Vivek Mahbubani closed the openers with a solid ten minute set on why we should all learn Cantonese and his experience with working in local commercials. It's easy to see why Vivek has become such a success in the local comedy scene. His set was polished, his work was well thought out and accessible to people of both Chinese and Western backgrounds.
Tom Rhodes may not work for everyone. As the comedian says himself, "Some of my jokes are designed to make one person laugh at a time." This was pretty clear when he went into his sports material. Any jokes about baseball or football pretty much bombed with the Cyberport crowd. But one sports joke that killed with people of all nationalities was how much cricket sucks.
Mr. Rhodes' work is loud, brash and blue. It's definitely not for the faint of heart. He will make your mouth drop a few times in the show, for sure. He encourages suicide, discusses 9-11, gun control, racism, and tells parables of pinot grigio and Puerto Rican lesbian strippers. He also forgot his material part way through the show. Maybe he was overwhelmed by the vast size of the crowd at Cyberport.
The show is good value for the money. It was two hours plus of entertainment. Don't worry about going all the way to Cyberport. The next four days of shows are at various locations all over Hong Kong. There are shows in Stanley, Central, and TST. You can find out more information on the comedy.hk website.
Tom Rhodes is playing through November 5th. For more information, click here.
Comments
No comment at the moment.