Comedy Review: Tom Ward's Anthem

Ilina Jha

Writer

When I interviewed Tom Ward for the paper over a week ago, he promised that his show Anthem would be ‘[a] brisk stroll through new love, sex in your 30’s, house-shares, music, identity politics and green washing. Peppered with sound FX and the odd song.’ As I left the Glee Club on Wednesday night with cheeks still sore from laughing, I can safely say that Anthem delivered all this and more.

The first surprise of the night was when Tom was introduced before his support act (Danny Clives), almost immediately beginning with some audience interaction. His first choice – a 20-something-yearold Danny with a silver tooth and can of energy drink –quickly became a reference point throughout the show. Tom played the audience interaction perfectly and got humour out of everything, even from the lovely story of the couple who had their first date at one of his gigs

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attempt to give it a broader appeal.

Given the potential for a genuine Dylan musical, this sadly feels like a missed opportunity. This production is in many ways a technical marvel, with stunningly beautiful renditions of classic songs, great acting, and an authentically crafted set. But given its confusing story, unconvincing melodrama and underuse of Dylan’s lyrics, this production is a mixed-bag.

a year ago. Tom then began a joke survey of the audience, clipboard in hand, which had us roaring with laughter before the show had even properly begun – for Tom then brought on Danny Clives, returning afterwards to perform Anthem when Tom turns to an unexpected (but very good!) Michael McIntyre impression.

The clever deployment of music throughout the show is what stands out as unique to Anthem . Tom used music and sounds as part of jokes on everything from disagreement with his girlfriend over what their couple ‘song’ should be, to his critique of greenwashing in McDonald’s and Shell’s adverts. Tom cleverly handles the worrying subjects of climate change and the end of the world, cracking jokes that help us feel a little less bleak –indeed, it is hard to feel down

Tom also handled well the difficult subject of identity politics. He made it clear to us that he’s a straight, white, cisgender man who tries to be a good LGBTQ ally and a good feminist. (Although he was in a relationship with a man over a decade ago, he feels it’s been too long ago to identify as bisexual; some may disagree, but this is Tom’s personal choice). His handling of the subject of feminism for humour mostly worked – there were a couple of times when I felt a joke didn’t land so well, but I could see what he was trying to do, and I felt assured that the jokes were all in good faith.

Tom’s audience interaction throughout the show was just how it should be: funny, with some good-humoured laughing at audience members, but without straying into cruelty. Audience participation was encouraged, but no one was more participatory than the silver-toothed Danny whom Tom had identified at the very beginning. Danny was invited onstage for a segment that involved Tom asking him ridiculous questions and the two of them building a story together. Having such a segment in a comedy show is tricky – you have no idea how the audience member selected is going to respond and if they’re going to be good at helping to create humour – but Tom had made an excellent choice in Danny, and the whole section worked very well.

Overall, Anthem was a roaring success. I laughed lots and hard throughout the entire show – it simply was very, very funny. Anthem is Tom’s first UK tour show – and I am sure that it won’t be his last.