Last updated at 11:02, Saturday, 01 November 2008

Frankie Boyle

Frankie Boyle, Sands Centre, October 31st

Frankie Boyle may be the latest bete-noir of the Daily Mail for some crude comments about the Queen, but he had no intention of steering clear of controversy last night when he unleashed his black humour on Carlisle.

Boyle has been singled out for a joke he made during an episode of Mock the Week repeated in the wake of the Russell Brand row that has engulfed the BBC. His remark has prompted questions to the Director General and calls for a license fee boycott.

But Boyle showed no sign of being fazed by the attention.

Instead, much to the delight of the Sands Centre crowd, Boyle let his sharp-tongued wit travel to darkest corners of comedy. It was the kind of humour that makes Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross look like the Chuckle Brothers.

In fact if I wrote out his jokes (that included a comment about the Queen’s sex life that I cannot even begin to allude to here) the Daily Mail could bring out a special edition full of indignant outrage.

So there were jokes about paedophilia, Shannon Matthews, rape and the disabled. No wonder that a recent profile asked: Is Frankie Boyle the UK’s most shocking comic?

But the humour wasn’t all shock and no wit. Boyle’s not after cheap laughs and doesn’t take pot shots at easy targets (apart from Kerry Katona).

He clearly enjoys making the audience feel uncomfortable and not just with some remarks about Carlisle looking like a “holding pen for the Jeremy Kyle show”.

If I had a moan it was that I’d heard a lot of his one liners before on Mock the Week, but I wouldn’t say that to his face.

Boyle invited questions from the audience which injected some fun into a set that was running out of steam slightly. I think he would have liked a few hecklers to feed off.

And it was a treat for the crowd to hear the jokes that Boyle had failed to get aired on Mock the Week.

And the “blackest man in comedy” as he bills himself even had some touching stories about his young daughter to tell us.

But just in case we thought parenthood and turned him soft he left the stage after giving a Nazi salute as if to prove that there’s nowhere off limits for his unique humour.

Frankie Boyle jokes:

No wonder Alistair Darling looks tired – has to commute in from Tracy Island every day.

Why do they pay Wayne Rooney so much – he’d be happy with a tyre on a rope

The East End is already like an Olympic village – loads of people who can barely speak English wandering around in tracksuits.

Men only like belly piercings because it reminds them of a staple in a porno mag.

First published at 00:48, Saturday, 01 November 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk