Maximum Nonsense

Tony Law spends much of the hour loudly interrogating why anyone pays to watch a grown man babble about nonsense. He paces the stage claiming ‘Piking’ ancestry, half pirate and half Viking, treats his twin daughters like feral cave trolls, and drags out a steel drum only to point out that in his hands an instrument built for celebration produces pure melancholy.

The performance constantly turns in on itself. Law mocks the broad cadence of televised comedy clubs, shouting to nonexistent balcony tiers and announcing that Pol Pot is in the VIP seats, before breaking character to explain why conventional joke mechanics bore him. He treats the audience as co-conspirators in an elaborate prank against stand-up formula, culminating in an unhinged twenty-minute digression about two elephants walking into a bar.

Filmed at the 120-seat Seligman Theatre inside Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, the 73-minute set was recorded for independent comedy label Go Faster Stripe before receiving a wider digital release from Comedy Dynamics in 2018.

The live run was Law’s breakout after fourteen years of circuit obscurity. The hour earned a Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination in 2012 and won Best Show at the 2013 Chortle Awards, briefly propelling him onto mainstream British television lineups.