Acaster

His Netflix specials reminded me of Stewart Lee. Heavy layers of irony and plenty of callback references.

I was talking to one of my lifelong best friends recently who said he doesn’t get James Acaster and finds Nish Kumar really funny.

I’m not sure what’s real any more.

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Thought his Netflix shows were a little hit and miss but with some pretty decent moments to make them worth watching.

I enjoy him most on the Off Menu podcast though. He’s definitely got something but I’m sure that if I watched TV and was constantly seeing him on panel shows I’d be tired of him.

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I’m not entirely sure what an Acaster is or what it wants. Any indie points in that?

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I assumed it was a guitar.

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a ‘what’s your comedy hot take’ thread would be a good idea, and this would kick it off magnificently

(you are so wrong)

I don’t dislike Acaster, he’s just… fine I guess in the way that a lot of bands are just… fine, guess, if I was at a festival and saw a lot of bands I’d not leave their set but their name on the poster would never get me buying a ticket

His Netflix thing was on in the background whilst at home one time and… it was really normal. The delivery and everything was just very Night at the Apollo

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Anyway, it wasn’t funny

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I’ve no idea. Friends keep buying me tickets to see him. Can’t remember what he was chatting about last year. going to see him again in September. not sure what he’s chatting about then either.

I really, really like James Acaster. Laughed a lot at his Netflix specials. Don’t get the live at the apollo comparison, but there we go.

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seriously don’t understand how his delivery could possibly be compared to Live at the Apollo. If anything sets him apart, it is his delivery.

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Didn’t like him much at first on Taskmaster but across that season had the slow realisation that he was kinda playing a character throughout and was smitten by the end. Think he’s great, personally. Different people find different things funny and this is fine when it’s not racist or whatnot.

Yours,

James Acaster’s accountant.

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:grinning:

Agreed, but maybe it’s because I don’t watch stuff like Mock The Week, which he appears on regularly - if that’s your exposure to him then I guess maybe it’s how he comes across but to me he is far and away the best ‘new’ comedian in the country

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I can’t understand this comparison at all. He spends all of the set pretending to be in character as an undercover cop, before peeling the facade away at the end. It’s not straight observational comedy, which I understand is the Live at the Apollo standard.

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I really like old Stewpot, by the way, my favourite comedian by a distance. I could just imagine him performing Acaster’s set.

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I said it was on in the background… The main things I remember were the jokes about stuff like ‘umpteen’, which could easily fit into any of those kind of comedy sets

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Would definitely say that Acaster/Lee is the closest comparison.

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well

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