Dwight Slade’s Manchester Comedy Review
Manchester Guardian | Covering American and international newsDwight Slade’s Manchester Comedy Review - You can sense the relief that American stand-ups feel when they arrive in the UK. Dwight Slade is railing at his compatriots within minutes of kick-off. “ ‘We’re number one,’ they cry blockheadedly, as if living on this planet is a contest that somebody can win.”
His comic scorn for lazy thinking, orthodoxy and smug complacency steamrollers all before it. He has a gift for exaggerating the quotidian injustices of American life to a point where they seem like hostile attacks on one sane man’s soul.
Of course, some of this recalls Bill Hicks, with whom Slade cut his comedy teeth. But Slade is his own man: there’s an excel-lent physical sequence about a driver and his car radio , that is light years from Hicks’s shtick. And Slade’s focus is more domestic than political.
Dwight Slade’s Manchester Comedy Review - Quote
"He has a gift for exaggerating the quotidian injustices of American life to a point where they seem like hostile attacks on one sane man’s soul."
He talks about the difficulties an aspiring stand-up experiences holding down a day job—not least when your customers at KFC ask: “What’s the difference between a two-piece dinner and a four-piece dinner?” He skewers the language abuse of corporate culture, the false sensitivity, say, of “we’re letting you go” instead of “you’re fired.” “You’re letting me go?
Why that’s a very generous severance package.” Slade uses language fantastic-ally. He is also prepared to play the fool, so self-righteousness never gains a foothold. This is pure stand-up: there’s no overarching theme, just the collected thought of a man with a fine line in savage comic dismay.