Reginald D Hunter

Reginald D Hunter, a black American stand-up comedian from the US south is one of the most unique and talented stand-up I’ve ever seen. I stumbled across his show, ‘A Mystery wrapped in a nigga’ 3 years ago at the Edinburgh festival and almost soiled my pants with laughter for the whole 60 minutes. The following year we met again at Edinburgh when I watched his controversial show ‘White women’ which was superb, slick and hilarious, once again he was shortlisted for a Perrier nominee but didn’t win, supposedly for his controversial style. But it isn’t just his slick delivery and sublime, relaxed, Samuel Jackson vibe that makes Hunter compelling but his brave attempt to use comedy to challenge the audience’s perceptions and beliefs, he reminds me of the video’s of Bill Hicks from 15 years ago. This time he was back in London, his status as an urivalled talent cemented by a 2 month solo weekend residency at The Venue, a new theatre located ironically next to Stringfellows stripclub. I eagerly booked a group of tickets for the saturday show and was surprised to find it wasn’t sold out. Hunter took time to get the half-filled audience on side but had lost none of ability to dicuss controversial head on; paedophilia, the Pope’s death, disfunctional families, race, women, colour, the English, Bush, war… Hunter’s easy going story telling style is by no means a laugh a minute in the conventional stand-up style but his sharply observed comedy teaches you to question your own attitudes by examining his own misconceptions and assumptions. By the end second half the audience were really behind him and you could here the belly laughs after each monologue, a clear sign that we were on side and had entered his world of the ricidulous. If you get a chance go see him athe Venue.