I was a relatively late arrival at the Jonathan Pie party, but he remains one of the current joys of my life.
For those not familiar with Pie, he's a comedy character created by actor and comedian Tom Walker. The premise is that Pie is a political reporter who engages in foul-mouthed, off-camera rants to his never-seen producer, Tim, about the news he is covering.
Pie's weekly bite-sized reports have been going up on YouTube for just over two years now, and Walker and co-writer Andrew Doyle have crafted some beautifully written stuff.
Walker is excellent as his disillusioned reporter alter-ego, a man who is both bamboozled by the stories he is expected to report on and constantly frustrated by the constrained narratives his reports are expected to follow.
The major development in the Pie world over the past 12 months was the announcement of a live tour, so the Missus booked us tickets and we headed off to see the show last night. I was particularly intrigued to see how they'd extend the structure of Pie's explosive and curse-filled three-minute off-camera YouTube segments into an hour-long show.
The night kicked off with the wonderful Zoe Lyons doing a 20-minute support slot. I like Lyons: she's funny, engaging, self-deprecating and smart. I've seen her a few times and she's always good value.
After a quick break, it was time for Pie.
The premise of the stand-up show was that Pie was trialling a TV format in front of a live studio audience, with a couple of TV producers in to hopefully sign up the show. This structure gave Pie the chance to rip into his usual targets, such as the Tories, the plague of ills surrounding social media and its influence on many of its users, Donald Trump, the curtailing of freedom of speech and debate, etc. These included some OTT Day Today style graphics, too.
The TV format trial inevitably ended with chaos and failure, and an exceptional Pie rant that was at least a ten on the fuck-off-ometer. It was excellent.
There are many reasons to adore Jonathan Pie. Cynical and furious a comic creation he may be, but I can't think of a more perfect guide to navigate confused users through the current quagmire of political double-speak and obfuscation. He feels quite necessary because he offers a course through the madness of a world where value systems seem to be have been turned upside-down, where a celebrity comment on Twitter can trump a genuine story affecting millions.
I am also in total agreement with his view that we are losing the ability to discuss and debate, and alternative views are effectively in danger of being censored by the 'right' of people to be offended. It is bizarre that a country that helped defeat such extremism in World War Two is now seeing many of those freedoms that it fought under threat by a liberal consensus that seems determined to curtail freedom of expression.
On a final note, as a wannabe comedy writer, I love Pie because the team behind him has shown a path to getting work out there. Pie built up a following on YouTube by creating an entertaining and thought-provoking product that has now found a new life as a stage show. It's a model to borrow and one I should adopt for a few things I have in mind.
I love Pie. He's on YouTube and he's still touring this show. Watch, enjoy and digest...
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