I’ve been a fan of Jasper Carrott most of my life. Having grown up watching his shows that were a mainstay of 90’s television, I was looking forward to seeing Jasper live for the first time, during this series of shows for the people of his home town.
The added twist of the shows was that you could choose your favourite jokes and sketches from the last 30 years of his career, by voting for them on the accompanying website - that’s if you applied early enough, and I didn’t!
However, this was ultimately the flaw of the show. With no new material, you were likely to hear a lot of his stuff before, and somehow they didn’t seem as convincing. I felt that given Jasper was telling essentially the same jokes night after night, and it came across as repetitive, scripted performance. I wont say that it was a dull performance - I had many many laughs, but I’ve laughed much harder.
The encore was a perfect example of the half-hearted performance this seemed. Jasper explained that he was not going to do an encore as we all knew he would walk off, we would cheer and he’d come back and tell a few jokes. But surely that’s the attraction? I felt that this was a cop out.
Thankfully I was in the excellent company of Fran who came along with me - and I must thank Jasper for preparing a signed photo for her - that went down a treat!
I would like to see Jasper performing again, but only if it was new material. This performance lacked any spontaneity and just seemed a little lack luster, but a good night out all the same.
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