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Neil Ainger enjoys an evening of witty and lightly angry sarcasm courtesy of engaging comedian Andy Zaltzman
Image by Matt Stronge
It will come as no surprise to those familiar with Andy Zaltzman that sport is central to the comedian’s essence as a human being and performer. As the host of the satirical news podcast The Bugle, the presenter of Radio 4s The News Quiz, the statistician on the BBC’s Test Match Special and the series 18 champion of Channel 4’s smash hit comedy Taskmaster, he won his crown while dressed in various different cumbersome cricket attire. Even when musing over the possibility of our planet one day becoming one giant super-continent, he wonders what that would mean for the Ryder Cup.
The Zaltgeist tour addresses the state of the Planet Earth and asks a lot of questions while desperately seeking answers. Asking whether his audience feel better after their drink in the interval and noticing that alcohol can make us feel better in most situations, he wonders “why don’t they have that in the Middle East?” Surveying the audience for teachers, he argues that each and every subject should be stricken from the curriculum. After tearing apart one or two subjects you could just about believe that his trademark long-form, sweeping deconstructions are off-the-cuff, but once he has hit just about every one it is clear that it is rather brilliantly and intelligently crafted material. As well as the national curriculum, Andy has plenty to say about Brexit, Trump and Putin amongst other current events and hot topics. He has so much to say in fact that he needs a little help, so he has brought with him an AI machine.
Unboxing and assembling his ‘AI machine’ he reveals a penguin stuffed toy wrapped in Christmas lights which he ‘connects’ to a laptop and invites the audience to shout out questions that the penguin will provide answers to. He then proceeds to presumably write a large amount of the second half of his set during the interval as the foul-mouthed penguin offers answers to all of the audience’s questions, often ending with a conclusive and definitive “problem solved”. All in all, Andy Zaltzman’s lengthy, witty, lightly angry satirism and booming linguistic gymnastics is charming and engaging and makes the ultimate goal of providing answers to some of the world’s biggest questions secondary to the thoroughly enjoyable journey experienced along the way.
