Rising star brings comedic glow to winter audience (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rising star brings comedic glow to winter audience

8:32am Monday 6th February 2012 in Leisure By Andrew Thomas, Head of content

Andrew Lawrence: The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal

Despite the wintry conditions, which saw cars slipping and sliding outside on Highgate, the Brewery’s Malt Room was still around half full for Saturday night’s show by comedian Andrew Lawrence.

The rising star thanked those who had managed to make it – it transpired he had had to walk a mile to the Brewery because of the treacherous weather conditions.

Lawrence is an engaging and very funny performer, whose material is quite dark. He will regularly start a new section of the show with a phrase like ‘Life’s hard, isn’t it?’ or ‘Stressful, stressful..’ He does not tell gags as such. It’s more him talking about his life and relationships – ‘This isn’t comedy, it’s therapy’.

Articulate and erudite, he occasionally lets rip with a fast-talking rant. I particularly liked his verbal demolition of what he sees as the forced jollity of New Year’s Eve parties and his two-year-old condemning his nursery teacher for forcing him to sing ‘If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands’ when, as far as he is concerned, life has been far from satisfactory so far.

Lawrence has a unique style and, judging by this performance, has a bright future ahead.