It is uncontroversial to say that Frankie Boyle’s taste for controversy knows no limits. Last night’s show warranted five stars for topicality, one for decency. The flotilla deaths, the Crossbow Cannibal and even the Cumbria tragedy were all mentioned to an awkward mix of tuts and tension-releasing chuckles.
This former drug-user’s problem is that he is hooked on the unpleasant and the unpalatable. References to Madeleine McCann and Baby P peppered his no-frills set. He is still doing the routine about people with Down’s Syndrome dying young that created a furore in April.
Unrepentantly provocative? Clearly. His defence that they are "just jokes" made him seem closer to Chubby Brown than Lenny Bruce.
The 37-year-old was on morally firmer ground directing venom at public properties such as the Beckhams, Michael Jackson and Heather Mills. The World Cup-bound John Terry got a pasting, but for an armchair-bound Scot he was fair game. Susan Boyle was an inevitable leitmotif. Frankie — no relation — suggested she resembles "Gordon Brown playing Mrs Doubtfire". A great line, sadly one of the few one could laugh at without feeling grubby.
Until tomorrow. Information: 0844 277 4321, ticketmaster.co.uk
Frankie Boyle
HMV Hammersmith Apollo, W6
