Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Forum, Lonodn

Hannibal Buress hasn’t been in the UK for three years. Why? ‘Because I don’t need to,’ he says in his typically blunt deadpan. Last time around he was getting critical plaudits but playing small venues, this time around he’s sold out London’s 1,000-plus seater Forum.

It’s a strange quirk of fate that spiked his popularity, not so much the US Comedy Central series he made to mixed reactions, but a small segment of his stand-up show picked up by the media, calling out Bill Cosby for hypocrisy given the raft of allegations stacked up against him. It was the joke that broke the dam protecting the comic legend’s reputation against a flood of accusers.

Buress addresses the topic, briefly, here, suggesting the story got ‘out of hand’ and playing miffed at the media constantly referring to him as an ‘unknown comedian’. But the vibe that underpins his stand-up is that he’s something of a misfit – a man of misguided ideas, not always fully informed, but held with conviction and based on a kernel of recognisable frustration.

There’s also an acknowledgement that he’s playing bigger venues now with the addition of a DJ, not just to act as hype man but to play out snippets of songs for Buress to mock, from an easily overlooked kazoo on Stevie Wonder’s Sir Duke to the simplistic sequence of notes underpinning Iggy Azalea’s Fancy. And would you believe how many hip-hop lyrics begin with a reference to morning glory? Rap fan Buress does, and delights in sharing.

Nelly, Tupac, T.I. all get an affectionate skewering in this major strand to the show, which might by grabbing at low-hanging fruit, but done exceptionally well. His mimicking of Riff Raff’s lazy stage performance, half-heartedly singing along to his prerecorded hits, allows the comic to revive a couple of greatest riffs of his own, regarding ‘pickle juice’ or hipster moustaches.

The 32-year-old has some routines in this Comedy Camisado tour that match up to those. His thoughts on parenthood, including how he would cope with having triplets is a specially strong, as is his advocacy of why steroids could be a great thing in sport – both sections that in their own way are informed by a honest logic that overrides both sentiment and received wisdom, typical of his peculiar shtick.

His offbeat, distant delivery adds an extra element, so even an apparently insignificant aside about twisting when he should have stuck during a game of blackjack works far better than its slight content alone suggests it should. That said, there is also some filler in the show where he seems to be shooting the breeze – but even then a sparkling turn of phrase or unexpected turn of argument often lurks around the corner.

He rarely goes the direct route. For instance. rather than just read out his online abuse and answer back, as many comics do, he paints a delightfully tragic picture of a troll a step beyond the ‘sitting in their bedroom in their parents’ house’ cliche. And for all his aloofness, his nerdish insight also extends to an understanding of the way people and the world works, which he explains of with eloquent efficiency, getting to the nub of the mater.

Even though he admits, with a typically bold gag, he’s not yet in the Kevin Hart league of fame, the quietly assured Buress will surely find the adjective ‘unknown’ attaching itself to his media mentions with ever-decreasing frequency.

Review date: 14 Oct 2015
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett