ComedyReviewScotland

Lloyd Griffith: Baroque & Roll – The Stand, Glasgow

Reviewer: Jay Richardson

It’s quite a flex to begin a gig by revealing that the reason it was postponed from earlier in the year is that you were shooting a prominent role in a big television drama in Australia. And yet this is a show that finds Lloyd Griffith at his most vulnerable, with the second big disclosure of the night coming when he removes his cap to show his tentatively resurgent hair, the recovery shoots of his recent transplant.

Having appeared in Ted Lasso and starring in the aforementioned Death In Paradise spin-off, Return To Paradise, Griffiths is on the cusp of a career breakthrough. However, after filming his stand-up set at the prestigious O2 venue in London recently, as tour support for Jack Whitehall, he was besieged by negative feelings about his physical appearance. So he’s got himself an online personal trainer and spent £6500 to get his hair, teeth, eyes and body hair “fixed”.

Discussing cosmetic enhancements remains relatively rare for comics and even more so for male acts. The negatives are obvious, as you run the risk of being perceived as shallow and inauthentic. But having hit 40, Griffiths attributes his mid-life crisis to his comedic vocation, the spotlight on him stoking his hypochondria and body issues. Rooted in childhood insecurities that he’s at pains to illustrate, and the admission of him being single, you don’t doubt that these are decisions he hasn’t taken lightly. And that the embarrassment and shame involved is genuine.

But what’s particularly difficult in talking about mid-life crises and body issues is getting an audience to engage with them. In lieu of having a support act, Griffith devotes most of the first half of the show to crowd work. And on this cold, Monday evening it’s a struggle for him to get anyone to open up and share in solidarity. He’s relatively assured at self-deprecatingly mining the humour from these failed interactions, particularly with some cosmopolitan punters hailing from far-flung corners of the world. Nevertheless, it’s a real labour of diminishing returns, particularly his tendency to breathlessly rush a punchline into the next routine if he has no faith in it.

Eventually, a woman throws her partner under the bus. And it turns out that he’s acquired even more of the classic symbols of a mid-life crisis than Griffith, allowing the comic to share his anecdotes about getting a motorbike and electric guitar with a smoother sense of relatability, while achieving the Pyrrhic victory of reinforcing that these cliched weaknesses are difficult to admit to.

As ever, the blockier aspects of the former Soccer AM host are softened by his instinctive self-effacement and his angelic chorister’s voice, all of which are brought together in the formative, humiliating account Griffith gives of singing on the pitch as a 15-year-old before watching his beloved Grimsby Town, his moment of triumph quickly turned to ridicule, doubtless reinforcing his preoccupation with his weight.

The upside of talking about a taboo subject though, is that Griffith largely has the field to himself. Whereas unsympathetic, jobsworth GP receptionists are fast becoming a stand-up cliché as NHS waiting lists fail to decrease and his routine about turning a date with a doctor into a surreptitious consultation is excessively contrived, the mortification of his laser back hair removal feels fresher and more compelling. Not only is he an awkward, believable fish out of water at the private London establishment he picks for the procedure. But the manner in which he has to drag his redoubtable, long-suffering mother into his glow-up offers a painfully funny contrast between his showbusiness realm and her blunt down-to-earthiness.

Baroque & Roll is patchier than Griffith’s new weave. And he doesn’t properly dwell on whether his physical improvements are preventing him from addressing deeper psychological problems, only briefly reflecting on his unknown father. Regardless, he’s endearing, good company and really giving of himself. So you hope that the transformations he’s initiated deliver him what he wants.

Tours until 22 November 2024 | Image: Contributed

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Patchy glow up show

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The Reviews Hub - Scotland

The Scotland team is under the editorship of Lauren Humphreys. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. We aim to review all professional types of theatre, whether that be Commercial, Repertory or Fringe as well as Comedy, Music, Gigs etc.

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One Comment

  1. Review – Lloyd Griffith – show 22/11/2024. Really poor and eminently unfunny. Bottom/ignorant sexual humour throughout, which might be ok in small doses but really only fit for a lads night out, if there is absolutely nothing better to do. I think most women will require a more elevated, sassy style. Very little content. Griffith elongated his (three) stories in order to fill in time, taking ages to reach the end of a tale, which was not, unfortunately, a punchline. When he said he had one more story to tell, I looked at my watch and felt desperate to leave. Overall, extremely boring. Just not entertaining. He talked only about himself, which may be why it was all so boring. He constantly re-referred to the set stories about himself. He needs more material and new delivery to succeed. He endlessly referenced his recent acting role. Absolute and total humiliation of a young man sitting near the front, to whom he referred, throughout the evening, as, ‘Oliver-the-virgin.’ Unforgiveable. The young man looked upset. What right does Griffith have to do this?

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