Review

REVIEW: Reginald D Hunter: An American Facing the Beast and Niggas – 3*

REVIEW: Reginald D Hunter: An American Facing the Beast and Niggas – 3*

Radio Ha-Ha! talks Ha-Ha!

Written by Sarah Exton

Reginald D Hunter performs once again at the Fringe Festival, making it his 20th Fringe – this big fish in the pool of comedy definitely doesn’t seem to be leaving us anytime soon. From only following his work recently, I’ve become quite the fan of Reginald and have always appreciated his ability of both amusing and offending a crowd simultaneously. This Fringe was my first opportunity to watch Reginald D Hunter live, and the excitement was indescribable. After watching numerous performances at the Fringe, this was my most anticipated show.

It breaks my heart that I have to write that I didn’t enjoy it. Although the show started steadily, with a healthy dose of chuckles coming sporadically from the crowd, as first-time Reginald watchers warmed to his humour. The normal expectation from then on, is for the show to pick up, however the momentum never really changed. Within ‘An American Facing the Beast and Niggas’, Reginald talks about his family, relationships and Brexit. There were a few moments that were worthy of a small snigger, but nothing that left me outraged or in stitches like his previous material has. His delivery throughout the performance came across poor, stumbling with his set-ups and having to start again, which immediately killed the momentum (which was already lacking). By the time he reached the punchline it was no longer worth it.

As critical as this may be coming across, I genuinely believe I just had the misfortune of watching Reginald on an “off” day. There is no such thing as a “Perfect Performer” and no matter how experienced you may be, there will always be days when you just don’t execute things to your best of abilities, whatever the reason may be. I still hold Reginald D Hunter in high regards and hope to try and catch the show again before the end of the Fringe, in the hopes of proving this article wrong.

Catch his show at the Pleasance at EICC – Pentland Theatre, every day (except the 20th) at 8:30PM. Buy your tickets here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/reginald-d-hunter-an-american-facing-the-beast-and-niggas

Radio Ha-Ha

August 20th, 2018

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