Jeremy Hardy is one of our most quietly treasured and well established stand-ups − an ‘avuncular Leftie, to follow in the pipe-smoke of Tony Benn’. Witty, intelligent and self-effacing, his unshowy delivery is the perfect foil for his humorous, beautifully observed and insightful quips on the sad state of the world.
Most well known as a veteran of Radio 4 being a regular on ‘I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue’, ‘The News Quiz’ and with his own show ‘Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation’, his well read and well-informed humour makes him a perfect contributor on ‘QI’ and ‘Mock the Week’. But he’s also appeared on TV’s ‘Now Something Else’ with Rory Bremner, ‘Saturday Live’, ‘If I Ruled the World’ with Graeme Garden and Clive Anderson and in the much beloved ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’.
Hardy isn’t afraid of mixing his left-wing socialist politics into his topical act at every turn. He’s peevish, grumpy and charmingly tetchy, harbouring a lingering disappointment at the fact that despite his 23 years of stand-up, the revolution is no nearer. But his political invective and tirades are always delivered with wit and an element of surprise.
He’s an intimate performer and you get the feeling that he’s just talking to you, as if down the pub. It’s a genuine conversation with someone who really does care about the world. True, he’s a middle-aged grumpy old man, but thought provoking and funny with it − gently pointing out where we really all should do better. But don’t be fooled. Though understated, self-effacing and adorably confused, his superb delivery is a tour de force.
Always one to ‘walk his talk’, in 2002, he travelled to the West Bank to make a film documentary about the International Solidarity Movement called ‘Jeremy Hardy vs. The Israeli Army’ which put him at some personal risk. He has also appeared in Mike Figgis’s ‘Hotel’ with Burt Reynolds and ‘How to be’ with Robert Pattinson. A regular columnist for London’s ‘ES Magazine’ and ‘The Guardian’, Hardy has written three books, the most recent of which was ‘My Family and Other Strangers’ (2010) which chronicled his ‘desperate search for interesting ancestors’ around among other places, Malta and the Croyden one-way system.
Sandy Toksvig calls him ‘a comic genius’. Who are we to argue?
Jeremy Hardy is at the Comedy Hall in Tiverton on 7th October 2013 at 8pm. Click here to buy tickets.
Phone: 07931 151545
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