Comedy Review: Doc Brown - Udderbelly Festival, Southbank, London ✭✭✭✭
Doc Brown
Udderbelly Festival, Southbank, London
Friday 3rd May: Doc Brown, real name Ben Bailey Smith, is hitting the comedy scene with full force. Formerly a rapper, touring with the likes of De La Soul and Mark Ronson, he has now swapped stages and has appeared in The Inbetweeners, Derek and Russell Howard’s Good News. His simple yet super effective anecdotes really do get the audience laughing, it’s a different kind of comedy and puts a breath of fresh air back into 2013 – it’s almost like he demands a new generation/style of comedy injecting just the right amount of rap here and there throughout his act. Doc Brown says “I’m an accidental comedian. That makes me dangerous”, it might have been an accident, but there is nothing bad about this accident.
Some of the topics that were up for discussion at the Udderbelly were race, kids and rap (obviously). Doc Brown is immensely likeable, a nerd that turned to rap, and a discipline he defines as “the long, yet determined, struggle not to appear gay.” He has a great rapport with the audience, having the ability to connect with the audience is a necessity for a comedian, you don’t want an audience who doesn’t laugh or participate, this certainly doesn’t happen with Doc Brown.
Probably the best part of the night, is when Doc Brown is talking about the song that he would have wanted to make, the song that would have earned him buckets of money and impressed the ladies. The punch line of that rap was “This Aint What I Asked For (I’ve Got A Semi On The Dancefloor), so catchy. The comedy raps which are infused in the routine are seamless, making a great connection between stand up and rap.
As the show progresses the topics start to loosen up a bit, with a conversation about the comedian’s mixed race ethnicity: “in case you are wondering, my dad was white and my mum was black – the weird way round”. He has a knack for dropping the punch line on time and making it very effective. The whole audience was in hysterics.
Doc Brown is a new star in the comedy world and I’m sure there is more to come from this guy. A fresh and exciting new take on hip hop and comedy, a definite must see.
4 stars ✭✭✭✭
Listings Information
Click the link for upcoming dates: www.docbrown.co.uk/stand-up/upcoming-dates
