Al Pitcher - Idiot Wind

Published Wednesday 15 August 2007 at 13:35 by Thom Dibdin

A big finish and plenty of foot-in-mouth moments are Al Pitcher’s promise and he delivers on both fronts with bells on. Or maybe that should be with fluffy dog-shaped slippers on, as his big finish flies off into the sunset.

Pitcher is the kind of stand-up comedian who has enough structural awareness to start huge and reign it back in within seconds, while keeping his audience absolutely on side. Or even kill the momentum dead, hand out ice-lollies, and then still find space to accelerate smoothly into the ending. His naive exuberance helps as he infects the audience with his own excitement.

As for the foot-in-mouth moments, Pitcher’s idea of idiot wind is just that - but in extremis.

The times when you are so overawed by your environment that your mouth takes a direct line to Prince Philip while your brain stands watching. He fits all the currently topical stand-up staple material into the format with ease, adding his own anecdotal stories to personalise it while, on occasion, floating one in so adroitly “I thought downers were a flock of retards” that no one even notices quite how offensive he can be if he tries. A very talented performer indeed.