Entertainment

Review: Jake O'Kane, Grand Opera House

Stand-up comedian Jake O'Kane
Stand-up comedian Jake O'Kane Stand-up comedian Jake O'Kane

Nobody Shouted Stop

Jake O’Kane

Grand Opera House, then touring

I’d never seen a stand-up comedian perform live so my baptism was just about the best it could be.

Jake O’Kane is so much more than a comic. His insight into our lives, our politics, our faith and our health is staggering, and he can get his message across in the best way possible - criticism with humour, an iron fist in a velvet glove.

This man believes God put him on earth to annoy our politicians and I would love to chain them all to the seats in the Opera House for the duration of his act.

I can believe him when he says that one of his shows at the Lyric was halted when a woman in the audience ‘laughed so much she boked red wine all over the lady in front - who was wearing a white fur coat’.

The man across the aisle from me was apoplectic, howling with laugher, tears trickling down his cheeks. I feared for him and he wasn’t the only one gripped by this irreverent humour.

Jake’s ‘loose’ review of 2018 was masterly. He explains that he writes the script at the last minute because things change so quickly - after all, Arlene might suddenly learn Irish, or Michelle might collect wood for east Belfast bonfires.

No-one is safe - the tourist board, the Pope, members of the DUP and Sinn Féin - and with the use of pictures on a screen behind him, hilarious speech bubbles say it all in this slick show, and Jake bombards us non-stop.

He calls his wife ‘the Protestant’, telling stories of holidays and mosquitos who bite him in a place a man can’t scratch let alone smother in cream and the Protestant isn’t a bit sympathetic.

But it’s mostly politicians who get the sharp end of his tongue. There’s a mighty roar of approval when he takes them apart for being paid for doing nothing and compares their workload and wage to that of a young nurse.

He’s an actor, a mimic, an unstoppable witty, erudite man who has his eye on the ball and leaves our sides sore.

His warm-up man, Terry McHugh, is also very funny and honest as he talks about having two mini strokes, his whacky audition for Game of Thrones, and gives the ‘Tyrone ones’ a hard time,

He certainly has a great master to study in the shape of Jake O’Kane and he’s learning fast.

Anne Hailes