Edinburgh Fringe 2004 saw Jimmy perform his Public Display of Affection tour across 6 gigs at the EICC (for more, see here).

This post is about a review that he received from the Edinburgh Evening News on August 17^th 2004. Written by Struan Mackenzie, I suspect he must be some sort of psychic as his piece was headlined “Taste of taxing times ahead for future targets”.

He started his 4-star review by saying:

There exists somewhere in the ether an abstract Law of Comedy Taxation. Every time you laugh at a joke at someone else’s expense (and let’s face it, that’s most jokes), the tax you pay is to not be offended when you yourself or the group you belong to come in for a drubbing.

Jimmy Carr is the comedy taxman, and with his Public Display of Affection show is creating a huge debt for his fanbase.

I was already inwardly smirking and then snorted when I read him describe Jimmy as:

…the impeccably dressed Cabbage Patch doll of Satan…

Describing him “methodically flipping through his mental Rolodex of offensive topics”.

Of all the descriptions I’ve ever read, of Jimmy, that one has possibly amused me the most. Tagging the “Satan” on the end was just brilliant.

At this stage I had to stop typing to see when Rolodex went out of fashion…turns out they didn’t and you can still buy them on Amazon. I digress.

The review ends on a high with Mr Mackenzie saying:

There’s a grim inevitability, a necessity even, that Carr will eventually turn his vitriolic mirror full glare on the middle-class audience themselves. In doing so, one senses he will become one of the best comedians Britain has ever produced.

In positioning himself as the intellectual bad-taste guru, Carr has reaped the rewards of the Law of Comedy Taxation. Somewhere down the line, he’d better be prepared to turn the tables. And when he does, we the guilty audience had better be prepared to pay out big.

I’ve read a lot of comedy reviews over the years and this one is outstanding in its imaginative approach.