Life is pointless, people are awful, death is the only thing that will spare us from the continuing cycle of disappointment - these are the main points to take away from Andrew Lawrence's show 'Andrew Lawrence is Coming to Get You', performed at Just the Tonic last night. Sounds like a cheerful hour and a half, right? Of course, it wasn't just an hour of doom and gloom, and as far as I know nobody actually committed suicide after the show, primarily because it was so entertaining. Lawrence is a master of despair and misanthropic ranting who manages to fill the entire show with negativity, always seeing the absolute worst in every aspect of life, yet always managing to stay funny and never lose the room - instead bringing the laughter to a peak the more vitriolic his rants become.
All the ingredients are wrong with Lawrence - he's odd looking, with an unusual voice, lacking in confidence about his own ability and socially awkward. He uses all of this to his advantage, which is what makes his act a success. For example, many of the topics covered were pretty standard observational fare - relationships & marriage, children, religion, dinner parties - but he delights in finding the annoyance and futility in each, using his uniquely shrill voice to great effect during a series of extended and highly verbose rants, which are impressively delivered, often without even pausing for breath.
