Review: Reginald D Hunter ****

At York Grand Opera House

Support act Steve Hughes (we’ll get to him) imitates – or attempts to imitate – Reginald D Hunter’s voice before the main act comes on stage.

It’s a barely passable impression, but then only Barry White might have matched Hunter for a voice with a bass that appears to shake a room.

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It is a voice he puts to masterful effect in his latest show called Sometimes Even the Devil Tells the Truth.

With a title like that (Devil, I assume, is used in the same way that Malcolm X used the term) you might expect a more politically engaged show with the engine of a strong message driving it.

What you get is simply an hour and a bit of Hunter doing meandering stand up. That, however, is no bad thing. Hunter is a consummate comedian who performs with a comfort on stage that immediately relaxes his audience, letting them know they are in safe hands.

When he arrives on a stage, with more than a hint of swagger, Hunter immediately warns the audience that if they only know him as the cuddly comedian from tv panel shows, they are in for a shock – and he really does shock.

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Racism, domestic abuse, sexual imagery, it’s all here and Hunter deliveries everything with a steady hand – not many comedians would bring the house lights up to deal with a heckler – and few do it with such efficiency as this man.

Steve Hughes, his Aussie warm up man, is the act here with the message, delivering uncompromising truths about global warming and the part we all play in the dumbing down of contemporary culture.

Hunter also occasionally slips into similar “message” comedy, but that this black comedian from the American South can entertain, as he points out, a largely white middle class audience in York with stories from his own childhood is all the testament you need to the universal appeal of the comedian with “the” voice.

St George’s Hall, Bradford, Oct 8

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