As this is the very last run of Brendon Burns' if.comedy award-winning show from last year, he starts off by explaining that most of the jokes are a little outdated now so we can move on and appreciate their context at the time. The theme of the show I Suppose This Is Offensive Now is classic Burns; for the promotional posters he had three separate shots of himself blacked up with a bone through his nose, sat in a wheelchair imitating a paraplegic and finally, nailed to a cross. He tells us he stopped short of adding an image of a woman giving him a blow job in the latter picture as: “It made the poster too busy.”
This is the 10th Edinburgh show from Burns who’s previously enjoyed six sell-out runs in a row. His previous three shows, written after a break up with his fiancé, famously led to his being sectioned after too much self-analysis led to a schizophrenic episode. This show is refreshingly less self-involved and looks at socio-political issues of 2007, such as suicide bombers and racism in Big Brother. Burns continually asks hard-hitting questions to get us thinking. In reference to the failed bombings in Glasgow, he says: "There's nothing funnier than a terrorist blowing himself up trying to be a martyr. Why would you try to convert the British to a religion where drink, drugs and casual sex is banned? They can't even convert to Christianity for fuck's sake!"
He lambasts reality TV even though he briefly hosted a few episodes of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! It was however, a short-lived job. It appears even Burnsy can be offended and he walked out after Jade Goody’s boyfriend Jeff Brazier, stuck a cork hat on his head, reducing him to a cheeky Aussie stereotype. “If I was black,” he fumes, “would you make me hold a spear?”
In the end, Burns managed to delve into issues of racism, homophobia and sexism (“Is it sexist to hate women?”) without actually offending anyone and perhaps that’s because his delivery was more laid-back, less of a rant and dare I say it quite charming. The finale was incredibly clever and made us all question our own social prejudices. It would ruin it to divulge so you’ll just have to take my word for it and go and see some of the last shows for yourself. Here Burns proves he really is a lot more than just a brash, controversial egotist.
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