Reginald D Hunter: "Complexity is beautiful"

Reginald D Hunter performed his first stand-up gig for a bet, having previously trained as an actor . A fiercely intelligent commentator on an unlimited range of subjects, his latest show, Sometimes Even The Devil Tells The Truth, sees the comic evolving further. Talking to The Skinny on the phone from Liverpool, he tells us about the intriguing title. "Well, I had an argument with my sister, who is a Christian, about the idea that to tell a big lie, you have to have certain fundamental truths. She got upset by this." Is it a philosophical show, to some degree? "Some people ask me about being a 'race comic', sometimes I get asked about being a 'man and woman comic'... sometimes I'm asked about being the 'philosophical and theological comic'. British people have a very strong need to analyse things, and the world has been taught to be suspicious of complexity. The truth is that complexity is beautiful."

Hunter has just released a live concert DVD. As a comic, is it important to him have this kind of document, when so much comedy is consumed via the TV the internet? "Well, I will never see myself live. The point of the DVD is that, after fourteen years in stand-up, there wasn't really a clear document. All of the lovely jokes can be new to people now. I don't want to over-document, though. There are so many people with cameras on their phones, constantly clicking away, and they never get to enjoy the present moment. TV has all sorts of restrictions and agendas, it has an inherent blandness, often robbed of its own imagination by making sure nobody gets upset. TV is actively bad - it makes more bad stuff than good. TV in Britain can't work out what to do with comedians, beyond panel shows."

What communicates itself with great force in our conversation is Hunter's passion for the shared live moment. "It's a commitment, it's a love, it's a pain in the ass, and I'm there until the end of the line." His recent Glasgow show, he says,went "rollickingly swimmingly." Clearly fascinated by the artistic achievements of Britain, he talks eloquently of this island's tendency to produce great poets, citing the weather and the "very introspective" nature of the people as possible contributing factors. Given the wide cultural reference points, I wonder how far the training as an actor still informs his work. "When training becomes muscle memory, you have to do shows with a fresh approach, I think.

"I hope to explore, to help people get back to being natural. People are aggravated, it is hard for them to sit at the window and think. We can't control shit, it's an illusion." he says of future plans.

Here is a comic who can arbitrate between ferocious polemic and considered reflection with ease.