Andrew Lawrence (From Croydon Guardian)

Andrew Lawrence

1:33pm Tuesday 12th August 2008

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Andrew Lawrence - Don't Just Do Something, Sit There.

How to disarm immediate criticism from an audience: come on stage and slag yourself off. They all do it, they come on and say "I know what you're thinking, where's the comedian this looks like the cleaner blahdeblahdeblah."

But boy does Andrew Lawrence go for it. Hacking himself to bits with tirades about his face, hair, physique ("like a sick, elderly woman"), voice, job, social skills; and it carries on throughout the show, peppering it with verbose, colourful self-abuse, and when he redirects his detailed bile onto other people/subjects you wonder how much vomit can come from one kitten, to paraphrase Blackadder.

But look through all this, and the seemingly negative title, and you will find this is an incredibly positive, confident show that gets better the more I think about it.

The subject is the crippling effect that ambition and keeping up with the Joneses can have on a person, with the conclusion that the path to happiness could lie in opting out of this modern disease of competition.

Most importantly it's funny, but also what a joy it is to hear some constructive wisdom too. Where Rhod Gilbert, Jon Richardson, Reginald D Hunter rail despairingly, Lawrence actually offers an answer.

Never a comic who will try to make the audience like him, you have to just ignore the self-laceration and vile imagery, enjoy the brilliance of his gags and the bravery of a comic clearly not blessed with self confidence coming out and saying something positive.

Four stars