Suitable for 15+
Every comedian has their own style, and Jack Whitehall has certainly found his. At such a young age, it’s surprising – he’s only 26. He’s charismatic and full of youthful energy, and has a really great stage presence. A product of private school, he plays on his personal insecurities for the benefit of us, the audience. In spite of being born wealthy, his experiences with bullying will chime with many of us, and his victory over them gets us all cheering.
Jack is concerned about the introduction to his show, so he has a discussion with his father. It needs to be big and beautiful. His dad features on Jack’s TV show, Backchat, because their interactions and ‘banter’ are hilarious and make superb TV. Jack eventually decides to open his show by riding to the stage on a Segway scooter under a shower of confetti. There’s only one problem – the stage is in the centre of the arena, a circular platform upon which there is nowhere to hide.
This is something known in theatre as staging “in the round”. It is what it says on the tin. It’s a difficult thing to do, because of that golden rule of theatre – to never have your back to the audience. With “in the round”, this is unavoidable. So, it’s a nerve-wracking thing to do, but he manages to make all the audience feel involved and included.
Jack’s obsession with the Lion King is a recurring joke. To him, it’s anything but a kid’s film. To him, it’s “Shakespeare with fur”. He hilariously points out the faults of the film, and mourns that Mufasa died in vain. He comes up with a “stampede early warning system” that would have prevented Mufasa’s death, and puts it into action at the end of the show. He dresses as Mufasa and demonstrates the effectiveness of his system, and exits the show in the flamboyant fashion he thought Mufasa should have exited the stampede in the film.
He takes the mickey out of his posh upbringing in a way that makes the (mostly working-class) audience warm to him. As you can imagine, this isn’t easy, considering the nature of Britain’s solid concrete class system! Something about his childhood tales break down the class barriers that we might have felt existed – those little victories we have over our parents and every school’s playground mafia are things that cross class divides, it seems.
He also manages to interact with both the audience and the camera – so he addresses everybody! Even you, sitting on your sofa at home. Despite making everybody feel loved, he does have favourites. Some members of the audience become part of his jokes. For those people, they must have felt very special, and it probably made their front row experience (though humiliating) memorable and worthwhile.
Jack has become a household name in the world of comedy, and deservingly so. Now he’s performing to massive audiences like Wembley Arena at such a young age, it shows you just how popular he is. This, plus his comic acting performances in Bad Education and in Channel 4’s Fresh Meat ensure that Jack has thoroughly cemented his place in Britain’s TV hall of fame, and in our hearts too.
Image from: http://www.tuppencemagazine.co.uk/jack-whitehall-gets-around-review/
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