Elis James: Speaking as a Mother

I think Welsh comedians might be the new Irish comedians. There’s something about the accent that holds you safe and makes you want to laugh, and this suits Elis James’ persona perfectly.  The title has nothing to do with the show, though the tales of his own mother do inspire a fair few knowing laughs and make you want to mother him a bit yourself.

His opening tale involving him being roundly shafted by a group of Rangers fans on the same night as a number of reviewers were in seems cunningly to bias critics to like him (we of course are the one who would have appreciated his talent even beneath the loud heckling and football scores), but even taking this into account he’s incredibly difficult to dislike.

He is, as he describes himself, a long-form storyteller, and the stories are engaging and funny, although they don’t always comfortably tread the line between truth and artistic license – the odd detail makes you doubt their veracity, without being full-out surreal.  Still, some of his stories are Googleable, and in fact only odder when you read them in the news.