Gareth Richards – Original Review
Note: This review is from 2009
Review by Steve Bennett
Though still nudging at the fringes of the established circuit, Gareth Richards comes across as an effortlessly assured act, with absolute conviction in his material, which he delivers with subtle charisma.His faith, for the most part, well-placed, with an impressive canon of strong, gag-driven routines. There’s an effective vein of silliness running through it all, which he underplays beautifully. Some of his finest one-liners are up there with the best of them, worthy of a Milton Jones or Tim Vine. But rather than mugging up the daftness, he plays it straight, almost as if it never occurred to him that his ideas are quite so ridiculous.
A few of his longer routines falter a little – most notably an atypically dark-edged imagining of how supermarkets might sell human flesh doesn’t really come off – but Richards has more than enough relaxed charm to get through it.
But this is the exception. Most of his lines, especially the shorter, punnier ones, fall somewhere between neat and exceptionally inspired; with a good half-dozen that are truly memorable.
He’s mainstream in the best sense of the word: universally accessible without compromising the quality of his writing nor slipping into obvious trains of thought. He may still be establishing himself, racking up those stage hours that underpin every lastingly successful comic, but expect to be hearing a lot more of him.
Review date: 27 Jan 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
