Review of Strictly comedian's stand-up tour

Chris Ramsey, comedian, is on tour at the same time as Chris Ramsey, podcaster… and it’s the latter who is doing the best business. The Shagged Married Annoyed show he performs with wife Rosie is filling arenas, while his stand-up tour wends its way around the nation’s regional theatres.

But intimate is always better with comedy, even more so when spilling the beans on family life. Flying solo with his 20/20 show, now comically misnamed thanks to Covid delays, Ramsey is lifting the curtain on a domestic situation most of his fans already know, thanks to the phenomenally successful podcast. The conspiratorial feeling of telling tales out of school without fear of contradiction from the other half, is only amplified by that familiarity. 

Ramsey’s all about relatability, as evidenced in a set list that encompasses the likes of running a bath, disposing of a child’s painting that doesn’t make the fridge-door cut, makeshift kitchen bins or a distrust of Amazon’s Alexa. His are the sort of observations that will boomerang back into the mind next time you take on any similar task.

The running theme is his flawed attempts to be a good parent, thwarted by grandparents with no sense of discipline, a bad habit young Robin hilariously picks up from school, and his own limitations, always gleefully seized upon by his wife.

Of course, there are subjects we can’t all identify with - like being on Strictly. But even in recounting the appearance that supercharged his profile, Ramsey remains the Everyman, flummoxed by the media hype and given a codename that’s the very epitome of low status, causing him abject embarrassment he now shares.

Everything is acted out with exaggerated emotion – and that includes laughing heartily at his own gags. It is, surprisingly, not annoying. Quite the reverse. Ramsey is a ball of joyous enthusiasm, which feels entirely genuine. And that makes the audience even more delighted to share in his domestic frustrations. Even in routines that feel over-egged – there really isn’t much in his West End visit to see Les Miserables – his glee does a lot of mitigating work.

Comedy of the everyday is harder than it looks, but Ramsey is authentic, effervescent and self-effacingly frank. The content is light, but Ramsey knows how to sell it, with his luminous presence ensuring a jolly night out.

• Chris Ramsey 20/20 tour schedule - it runs until May

Review date: 4 Oct 2021
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Ipswich Regent