Gerry Howell: Glorious Invention

Gerry Howell is a very funny man. Some people just fit comedy, and his gentle mannerisms and sly grin paired with his ponderous delivery just make him naturally amusing. Luckily he also has a raft of sublime material to go with it.  

Glorious Invention doesn’t really have any grand overarching theme or message behind it, and is much better for it. Howell hangs his routines loosely around his love of words and writing, reading us some examples from his self published short story collection (don’t all rush out looking for a copy, he's only made one for himself). His tales never go where you’re expecting them to, as he springs huge laughs seemingly from nowhere.

It’s undoubtedly his way with words which marks Howell out, as he exhibits wonderful skill for crafting memorable one liners and colouring his prose with an unparalleled level of surreal imagination. This fanciful imagination doesn’t dominate his persona though; instead his most offbeat lines tend to come as irreverent tags on his deadpan tales. He also has some brilliantly eccentric stand alone routines on small talk, relationships and religion which break up the readings well whilst keeping the show cohesive. Almost certainly one of the funniest shows on the free fringe.