Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is a simmering volcano that surely lives in the heart of Jeremy Hardy, a volcano that just wants to burst open and let the clouds of ash, pumice and lava fall where it must and melt what it can. It is a volcano that many would like to see crack open, devour a certain section of the population and then serenely go on biding his time until the next idiot comes along and pokes the genuine joy within to the point where explosions of distaste are vented once more.

To catch Jeremy Hardy perform is a gift, a pleasure of comedic legend who does not give a quarter of room for the ignorant of political persuasion and to whom coming to Liverpool is almost like playing in front of a home crowd, one that will virtually assure discomfort in the comfortable but please beyond the measure of a Labour Leadership landslide those to whom the way of Britain’s so called political elite is nothing but a pain that needs to be eradicated.

The Unity Theatre has always welcomed such thinking and when it’s as funny, as courageous as Jeremy Hardy, then it’s no wonder that upon leaving the conversations that can be heard going on around you range from his delivery and satire to the excited warbling tones of someone finally seeing the penny drop of how politics works.

For some there is a new found optimism to be found and it reflects in Mr. Hardy’s performance. Considered to be grumpy by some, other’s refreshingly candid and a true speaker of a mind’s thoughts and considerations, Jeremy Hardy couldn’t help but notice how much easier it was to spell him name out down the phone to corporations now that the Labour Party had elected Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. It was this first threads of thought that took the night ever onwards, where politics was touched upon more frequently that a Disc Jockey making inappropriate suggestions and in which the devilish glee in his eyes as he recounted just how desperately dull British cuisine is without the influx of people from far and wide, how any country can benefit a better understanding from opening its arms and eyes to the wider world.

Like Mark Thomas, time is never enough when listening to Jeremy Hardy espouse opinions and cause great laughter in an audience, a magician who takes an audience down a route they make have expected but who somehow opens the crack just that tiny bit more to allow rational thought to wash over you. An evening with Jeremy Hardy is one that never fails to amuse and educate in equal measure.

Ian D. Hall