"Chomsky possessed by the alien lovechild of Bill Hicks and Cary Grant."

That's a line from a review of comedian Rob Newman's "Apocalypso Now, or From P45 to AK47 - How To Grow The Economy With The Use Of War" tour.



I doubt he's particularly well known in the US. He came to prominence as part of a foursome called "The Mary Whitehouse Experience" in the late 80's. With his comic partner, he was the first comedian to play to a sold-out (12,000) Wembley Arena. Then he became somewhat of a recluse, emerging in the late 90's with a far more political act. He's also written 3 novels, the last about the effects of globalization and neo-liberal policies. I've been a fan for a long time, but haven't seen him live since 2000.

So ... "Apocalypso Now". It's just been released on CD and I listened to my copy tonight. Boy, was it good. The first half is some of the best and most exciting stand-up I've heard in a long while. It starts proper with a line he heard on BBC Radio 4 - "The G8 has endorsed an American plan to bring democracy to Iraq" - which to him demonstrates the utter naivety of the public/media towards geo-politic realities. He then launches into a history lesson, touching on the 1953 Iranian coup and the economic motivations behind WW1 ("an Iraq war"), explores the Euro-dollar oil theory as being behind the Iraq war and looks at how the US is threatened by the amount it is in debt. And it's funny. Very funny at times.

The second act is a little weaker and could probably do with tightening (but that's a pretty minor quibble). Here he looks at length at the paranoia amoung the UK ruling class that the French Revolution would inspire plebs like us to rise up, and the steps they took to keep control. This is compared with today's anti-terrorism legislation and the proposed ID cards. He ends with shorter pieces on peak oil and the glorification of Churchill (which fits in with an act one point that we don't get taught proper history), ending on a non-political encore.

There's more, slotted in here and there and you probably should be warned that on a couple of occassions he plays some songs on his ukulele. In summation - you need to hear this album. I've done a little googling & found the followin

You can buy it as an mp3 file here (I've never done this & don't know if it works from outside the UK):
http://www.comedymp3.co.uk/catalogue.php?product=73

Amazon.com have it to import (although it's quite a bit cheaper through the Marketplace link):
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BYVJU0/

Or you can get it straight from Rob Newman's website (£14 inc postage):
http://www.robnewman.com/robertshop.html

To end I'll quote a gushing review from "The Scotsman" at the Edinburgh Festival:

To paraphrase Voltaire, if Robert Newman didn't exist, no-one would believe it possible to invent him. Newman's is a kind of Revolutionary Renaissance stand-up and it is absolutely wonderful. His comedy probably has more constituent parts than any other comic's, and the whole is still greater than the sum of those parts. Firstly he is very, very funny. He can be witty, satirical and surreal in turn, and every so often will pull out a brilliant impression, just to remind us that he has more strings to his comedic bow than are attached to a World Bank loan.

He is certainly truly, arguably madly and definitely deeply passionate. In Apocalypso Now he deals with the subject of war and the way war is mis-sold to us, historically and currently, about injustice and inequality and about the apocalyptic energy crisis which is upon us.

(...)

I am completely in awe of his talent, his passion, his intelligence and the way he turns them to comedy with real firepower. And that is despite the fact he plays both banjo and ukulele while wearing a short sleeved shirt. If this world could be saved by a superhero whose superpower was comedy, that hero would be Robert Newman.

http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/reviews.cfm?id=1781362005