“I’m not paranoid, I’m suspicious!” states Steve Hughes, and from the tirades we have witnessed tonight, I can confirm that he’s not wrong. It’s a common misconception about Hughes. Apart from his evident love of Heavy Metal (long hair, dressed in black), he then adds to the mix a healthy dose of Anarchic political thought. As first impressions go, he is certainly not for the weak willed.
“I’m not paranoid, I’m suspicious!” states Steve Hughes, and from the tirades we have witnessed tonight, I can confirm that he’s not wrong. It’s a common misconception about Hughes. Apart from his evident love of Heavy Metal (long hair, dressed in black), he then adds to the mix a healthy dose of Anarchic political thought. As first impressions go, he is certainly not for the weak willed. His latest show, Conspiracy Realist, aims to shatter the illusion that he should just be dismissed as another off the wall Conspiracy Theorist. Whatever you read about Hughes will always come back to Conspiracy Theories. I mean, Christ, I have mentioned the it three times already!!.
Hughes looks to open our eyes to the evident peculiarities in the modern world, in particular, he focuses his vitriol at the armies of Health & Safety “experts” who roam the land covering it in red tape. His frustrations range from not being able to warm up a cold sausage roll or change a lightbulb in his dressing room because he hasn’t been on a course, to Australia’s attitude towards fuckwitted sports stars. Indeed, by the time the clock runs out on his slot, he dejectedly shrugs his shoulders, leaves us with his final opus, and mopes off the stage. The whole show does have a very political rally feel to it, and the fact that it is set in the Council Chambers is a nice touch. Another strange observation is that there is more clapping than laughter. Now, this is not to say that he wasn’t funny, because he really was, but there was a feeling that the crowd were adoring the fact that he was just saying what was on his mind. At times, I had to remind myself that I was at a comedy show.
The show itself is a good mix of great older material, and some good new material. His style can be brushed aside as lacking subtlety due to his straight talking demeanour, but some of the better moments during the show were a result of a well timed punchline, and followed by a muttered wave of comprehension going through the crowd. By the time the penny dropped, the whole place was going. To summarise, Steve Hughes is a very good comedian, but he isn’t for everybody. If you were to ask him his view on that, he would probably just say “So fuckin’ what?!” Nuff said.
