Rhod Gilbert and Hair-Splitters

Rhod Gilbert (born 18 October 1968)

I stumbled upon Rhod Gilbert by pure accident while searching for something completely different on Youtube, as you do (now you may well ask why isn’t this article under Youtube instead of Explore but frankly that’s just splitting hairs and at this stage of the article I’ll have no truck with hair-splitters)…where was I?...ah yes, at the time it was just a video of a unnamed Welsh comic under a vague title of “Funniest Video Ever” or words to that effect.

It was his skit of having luggage trouble on arrival in Australia. It truly made me guffaw and still does, and I found out later after watching more of his performances that his “anger” appears quite frequently and is all part and parcel of his unique persona, feeding from ridiculous situations and experiences from his life he seems to orchestrate his anger into crescendos as he builds up to his punch lines, it’s almost musical the way he ebbs and flows with normal level conversation through to irritation and full blown fury. But his anger seems quite unthreatening and innocuous and for the life of me I cannot explain how that is, though I suspect it may have something to do with him being Welsh.

Now usually, it has to be said, my taste sways towards surreal alternative comedians (though in this day and age people assume that you ARE “alternative” unless you state otherwise which kind of makes the label invalid as how can you be “alternative” when there’s little or noone to be “alternative” too if you catch my drift, if you don’t then I suggest you avoid anything in parenthesis as it does tend to be drivel)

Rhod Gilbert is what I call a “Real” Comedian, he’s observational take on the world veers towards the minute details of life that we so often overlook and take for granted (a great skit on duvet tog ratings springs to mind focusing on 10.5 tog and why the hell would we need half a tog when we don’t even know what a tog is) and the ridiculousness of his anger at these trivial aspects of life make Rhod all the more endearing and hilarious.

I just this minute Wikipedia-ed the man as I didn’t know how old he was (40), and I found out he only started stand-up comedy a mere 7 years ago, and in 2006 he was placed in the Times top 50 comedians, not bad going for just 7 years on the block. (There’s hope for the old girl yet!)

I’ve not yet seen this man perform live. I hope that statement will be false in the very near future (though my geographically challengedeyness fails me yet again on that front)

In a word Rhod Gilbert is very very funny (ok 3 words, listen I’ve already made my stance very clear on hair-splitters, so just watch it…and watch Rhod Gilbert while you’re at it too)

Rhod Gilbert is on Myspace http://www.myspace.com/rhodgilbertcomedian