Camden Fringe

Camden Fringe

13 August, 2008
by: Emma

Robin Ince: Bleeding Heart Liberal

Small hot stuffy rooms are not the best venues to be performing in when you put as much energy and words into an hour as Robin Ince does and especially not while wearing a woolly cardie.  However, despite profuse sweating and typical break-neck pace, Ince pulls off another tremendous set at Liberties with his new show Bleeding Heart Liberal.  As the title suggests, the main theme of the show is his political views with a mish-mash of anecdotes, rants, musings on evolution and topical news thrown into the mix.

One particularly funny story includes an altercation he'd had on an ITV debate about religion entitled: 'Are They Taking the Christ Out of Christmas?' the warning signs of which were presenter Konnie Huq, 'expert panellists' Vanessa Feltz and Nick Ferrari, not to mention Christian nutcase Steven Green, the man behind the Jerry Springer: The Opera furore. The account builds with Ince painting a very funny picture of his frustration at their stupidity and his resulting outburst where he realises he's arguing the geographical location of the fictional 'Winterval' festival rather than the point in question.

His points about religion are smart, and more importantly, valid – as he says: "I'm not against religion I just don't like it when it's used to disguise bigotry."  He gives a good example of this - when he was involved in an argument about gay marriage, a Christian told him the bible was all about gays and adulterers: "That's like saying Great Expectations is all about the flammability of wedding dresses."  Ince is famous for these long-winded rants and admits himself he is worried of turning into a 'curmudgeon', but understandably, it's only idiocy that makes him irate.

Ince must be one of the busiest comedians on the circuit; he does Edinburgh every year, usually performing or hosting several different shows, he regularly headlines clubs all over the UK, sometimes twice in one evening and if you look him up on YouTube you will find a multitude of clips from behind the scenes podcasts with Ricky Gervais to 'Backstage at the Fringe' bits for Amnesty International.  You get the impression if he was made to slow down and keep his grievances to himself he might spontaneously combust, so it's lucky for us he's showing no signs of stopping.

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Emma