Three volumes of autobiography about his life in Northampton, at art school and as a writer/ journalist make Mr Collins one of my favourite broadcasters. Now a budding Lenny Bruce, his debut stand-up show proves him as a writer of sorts in using words and ideas.
His motif of life as a journey from A to B becomes useful when showing ways to walk along to various songs on his Ipod (witness Ooh La La by the Wiseguys). Mark Ronson’s Ooh Wee is great to hear, and Collins has people shuffling their feet and swaying as if on a bus in the titular activity, a visually stunning moment. Great gags concerning living in Surrey and finding his way home by the newspapers on the doorsteps (Times, Telegraph, Mail, the names chanted as if in a Depeche Mode song or army stepcercise) and how the can Mirror say the worst serial killers are awful at what they do (surely, Collins posits, killing two hundred is a great track record) really work.
Collins knows his liberal-minded audience, and that good comedy is in the timing. He seems to have learnt his chops from comedy partner Richard Herring, providing a diverting hour in the best sort of way. The spirit of Free Fringe is evident here, as he proves to be dextrous in his dissemination of ideas.
