simon evans tour review

Simon Evans: The Work Of The Devil

Gentleman raconteur muses on identity with a personal twist in the tale

The lack of live opportunities during the pandemic means most comedians have arrived at the Fringe with either un-road tested works-in-progress or pre-pandemic works that never got their fair dues. In the case of Simon Evans, it’s the latter. The Work of the Devil is the show he first brought here in 2019 , renamed and refined and, if we’re being harsh, a little blunted by the passage of time. It’s a personal piece and one imagines the early tellings having an emotional rawness that two years and an intervening pandemic have taken the edge off, as well as dating some of the topical material. No matter, though. This is a story that remains well worth hearing.

The show’s overture is all about identity politics. Evans positions himself as an uncool uncle, grumpily bemoaning the tropes of our times – the explosion of genders, the radical and rapid shifts in language – and how disconcerting he finds it all. (The show’s title refers to the notion that every societal change that happens after you reach 35 feels like the work of the Devil.) If that sounds ho-hum, the droning-on of another middle-aged, middle-class white dude who “doesn’t get it”, then he’s well aware of the fact. Evans is a smart guy. Unlike some who share his take on life, he hasn’t arrived at it through knee-jerk reactionism, even if it suits his purposes tonight to play up to that. Anyone who has followed him over the years knows he is engaged enough that he could argue points from either side of the culture war. His reasoning happens to have led him in one direction. Yours may take you in another. Such is the nature of discourse.

This evening is neither the time nor the place for some of his deeper, more nuanced philosophical musings, although there are glimpses of what make him a thoughtful and provocative social media presence. Best among his early forays is a twist on the classic Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman set-up that questions the notion of prejudice and who it is directed towards. But there’s another reason for keeping the identity chat at a fairly superficial level. It is but preamble to the show’s personal climax…

Evans has talked affectionately about his elderly parents throughout and ruminated on the experience of being an only child. It would be churlish to say much more and ruin the reveal here, even if the show has done the rounds before. Suffice it to say, many performers come here with personal stories to tell, seldom do those stories intersect with genuinely eye-opening episodes of social history.

There isn’t the whiff of cynicism that sometimes comes with these trauma-mining comedy shows either. For a start, although one imagines Evans’ experience to have been life-altering, he isn’t playing for our sympathy. Instead, he delivers his story in almost matter-of-fact, lecture style as if sparing us the more moving bits. If we’re urged towards any emotional conclusion, it’s towards admiration for his parents, which makes it all the sweeter.

Evans has always cut a serious, impregnable figure. He’s an English gentleman raconteur. You can imagine him trading blows in the debating chamber or holding court at the members’ club bar and not giving much of himself away. Tonight though, you see the boy inside the man and get a chink of vulnerability. It also contextualises what has gone before. If you were of the mind at the start of the show that Evans was just another tedious, right-wing bigot, then at least by the end you’d have to conclude that not everything is as it appears…

Robert Peacock

27 August 2021 27 August 2021

• Assembly George Square Gardens Edinburgh 14 - 22 Aug 2021

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SIMON EVANS: The Work of The Devil Tour 2020 Review

One of Britain’s favorite stand-up comedians, defined by the driest of comedy and brilliantly sarcastic stage manner, Simon Evans introduced ‘’The Work of The Devil’’ Tour 2020, with two scheduled performances at Birmingham’s Glee Club, on the 11 th & 12 th of March.

With a 2:2 Law degree from Southampton University, he found himself captured by the world of entertainment and ultimately switched career paths, making his first appearances on radio, TV and of course, what became his major passion later on… Stand-Up Comedy.

Known as ‘’the comedian with no eyes’’, he has been entertaining audiences for 23 years now, with popular and critically acclaimed shows at venues and festivals all around the world, including Montreal, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, Aspen, Dubai, Switzerland, Norway and many more.

Evans’ stand-up live tour shows including Friendly Fire (2012-2013), Leashed (2014) and Genius 2.0 (2018-2019), have sold out UK theatres and received highly praised reviews from both national and comedy press. With his individual sets, he also made numerous appearances on some of Britain’s most popular stand-up comedy TV series such as Live at the Apollo, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and Edinburgh Comedy Fest Live.

The 54-year-old, owns writer’s credits in several TV programs, counting ‘’The Big Breakfast’’, ‘’Lily Savage’’ and ‘’8 Out of 10 Cats’’, and has regularly appeared in current affairs and debate shows such as BBC’s Question Time, This Week and The Big Questions.

He has also hosted his own 5 series show on BBC Radio 4, known as ‘’Simon Goes to Market’’, and has often participated in ‘’The News Quiz’’ panel show.

Based on ‘’The Work of The Devil’’ tour poster, looking at the world through the eyes of Robert Powell from 1977’s television series, Jesus of Nazareth, seems like a much better idea rather than through his own ‘’crude knife slits pushed into his face’’ for eyes…

Evans was welcomed on stage with a rock & roll tune loudly playing in the background, embracing the indulgence of a rockstar, but intentionally failing to support that imagery with his dress code, wearing blue jeans and what he described as an ‘’old geography teacher’s jacket’’.

‘’The Work of The Devil’’ was inspired by one of Evans’ old-time favorite comedy legends, Douglas Adams. It’s about a theory based on the three different stages of progress in everyone’s life, taken from one of Adams’ unpublished and unfinished passages for Dirk Gently. Firstly, there’s what existed before you were born and until the age of about 12 or13. Then, there are things which are invented in our late teens and 20s, the exciting innovations that our parents never knew. And then, there are things which arrive from our mid-30s onwards, by which we therefore denounce as work of The Devil.

It’s an unusual show for me, because the message of the show – almost beyond my conscious control – has become one that is genuinely heart-warming and uplifting, rather than just another weary sight at society’s collapsing values and so on. And honestly, I couldn’t be happier. The subject manner, the show itself and audience reaction to it – it’s no exaggeration to say that it had a positive effect on my mental health just performing it every night – Simon Evans

Just like in every Simon Evans’ show, the British comedian brings back some of his signature routines as he casually dissects major ideas and explores concepts mainly on Politics and Sociology, with a right-wing approach but leaning towards the hilarity of it all.

‘’The Work of The Devil’’ set starts off with old-fashion pub jokes, personal stories about his own family and parents, the importance of alcohol in the UK culture, the dead-end tragedy of Brexit, while scrutinizing identity politics and resurgent Nationalism. He also savagely brings to the surface the unresolved mystery which has become a big part in our everyday lives for the past 3 months, the Coronavirus, by saying:

I am so grateful to everyone that chose to spend this evening here, possibly your last one too, I mean who knows anyway…

As the set moves forward, it becomes significantly more personal with Evans going in depth about his identity, introducing an alternative side to stand-up comedy unlike anything you’ve seen so far.

For dates and tickets, visit: www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/simon-evans

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Simon Evans – The Work of the Devil

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Comedy Review: Simon Evans – Have We Met?

Simon Evans

Simon Evans: Have We Met? Evesham Town Hall 3rd December 2023

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SIMON EVANS GENIUS TOUR REVIEW : SOHO THEATRE

Simon evans ‘genius tour’ review.

We visited the Soho Theatre where Simon Evans was displaying his comical whit as part of his UK Tour of ‘Genius’ which started out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is now making us all laugh across the country.

Simon Evans for you that do not know is a UK Comedian  – well established at that. He has appeared on TV across different shows such as Daves One Night Stand, Comedy Store, Live at the Apollo and Mock the Week. So you may just have come across this comic at some point.

Genius was the name of the show, and for us it was! Simon’s aim of the show is to take us through modern Genius, and how we define it in the modern age. Reflecting on his years of experience and comparing to then and now he has us in laughs throughout.

At the start of the show, he talks about his age and how age appears to be gaining on him, the need for having to wear glasses, he picks out another audience member who has a set resting on her head, testing his eyesight through the pair to realise they have opposite focal needs gives us some chuckles.

The need to write post-it notes to remember what it is he is climbing the stairs for only to get there to forget and have to make his way all the way back down again certainly reminded me of my own memory skills and lack of attention span. We then turn to judging people in petrol station queues, to the qualifications needed to run the country and reflecting on the likes of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, and Brexit negotiations. Do we really have the right people running our country? Simon makes some very valid points and may just be as qualified in terms of education to run himself. A little about his own mother and father has us delving into their relationship.

We then move on to records of which he shows us his own personal Guinness Book of Records, reminiscing about what it took to get a record in yesteryear and cleverly compared it to a modern-day version, which shows us just how much society has changed and just how silly we can be and just how much attention we pay to it.

The audience was middle-aged and appealed every bit to the humour. Simon Evans rolled off his tongue effortlessly. This is because we have experience in life too, we have seen society change we can lend ourselves to the very experiences that Simon talks about, we have found that we can be just the same. This show is perfect in every sense and delivered smartly. We wouldn’t expect anything else from this performer, the audience laughed and as a comic what more do you want! The show is generating 4/5 stars everywhere and I can see why.

The tour runs until 9th JUNE 2018 and honestly is a great night out. Be educated in the term ‘GENIUS’ with Simon Evans.

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Simon Evans is touring the UK with his new show Have We Met?

The fragmentation and disintegration of memory is inevitable as one gets ever deeper into middle age. Simon Evans, 58 by the time he hits the road, has been mining that seam for some years now. His endless migrations up and down the stairs and through the caverns of his own mind in pursuit of elusive quarries have defined his recent work.

And a failing memory can be a blessing when we have so much we’d like to quietly forget.

But when that collapsing memory encounters a life-long dedication to procrastination and industry standard levels of ADD coming the other way up the pavement of life, they can easily spend the rest of the day politely unable to get past one another.

Have We Met? sees Simon determined to lock horns with the spectre of memory and wrestle its incorporeal form to the floor. To be the Proust, the Joyce, the Maurice Chevalier & Hermione Gingold of stand up. And something else. It will come to me. Bear with.

Simon is one of the UK’s most respected and established comedians. His TV credits include Live at the Apollo and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, BBC Two’s Mock the Week and was a regular on Channel 4’s Stand Up for the Week. Simon’s BBC Radio 4 series Simon Evans Goes to Market has audiences delighting in his witty and insightful take on the unpromising comic territory of commodities, trading and wealth. Other BBC Radio 4 appearances include the The News Quiz, The Unbelievable Truth and Armando Iannucci’s Charm Offensive. Simon is the only comedian to have appeared on both University Challenge: The Professionals, and Celebrity Mastermind (which he won – specialist subject Sir Ernest Shackleton). Simon has also recently appeared on This Week and Question Time. NB. Please take a name tag from the table in the foyer. And wear throughout.

TOUR SCHEDULE:

Friday 15 September Tenbury Wells, The Regal Saturday 16 September Tring, Court Theatre Wednesday 20 September Launceston, Town Hall Thursday 21 September Great Torrington, Plough Arts Centre Friday 22 September Exeter, Corn Exchange Saturday 23 September Dorchester, Thomas Hardye Theatre Thursday 28 September Pocklington, Arts Centre Friday 29 September Stamford, Corn Exchange Friday 6 October Bakewell, Town Hall Saturday 7 October Coalville, Century Theatre Saturday 14 October Bristol, Redgrave Wednesday 18 October Loughborough, Town Hall Friday 20 October Bury St Edmunds, The Apex Thursday 2 November Grantham, Guildhall Arts Centre Friday 3 November Norwich, Playhouse Saturday 4 November Tunbridge Wells, Trinity Theatre Friday 17 November Tiverton, TCAT Saturday 18 November Hedge End, The Berry Friday 24 November Faversham, The Apex Sunday 3 December Evesham, Town Hall

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Simon Evans - Have We Met?

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IMPORTANT NOTICE

The COVID-19 crisis has, inevitably, wrecked the original Spring 2020 tour schedule. As many dates as possible were rescheduled—and, then, sadly, had to be rescheduled again.

If you already had tickets for a rescheduled show and are at all (understandably) confused about which new date they now apply to, do, please, get in touch with the box office where you purchase them.

November 2022

Simon Evans

• Sun 15 Sep Evesham Town Hall Simon Evans & Friends View tickets
• Fri 1 Nov Bristol, Hen & Chicken Simon Evans View tickets
• Fri 29 Nov Torquay, Babbacombe Theatre Simon Evans View tickets

January 2025

• Fri 24 Jan Sheffield, Leadmill Simon Evans View tickets

February 2025

• Sat 8 Feb London, Leicester Square Theatre Simon Evans View tickets
• Tue 18 Feb The Glee Club Cardiff Simon Evans View tickets
• Sat 8 Mar Whitehaven, Rosehill Theatre Simon Evans View tickets
• Mon 10 Mar Edinburgh, Monkey Barrel Comedy Club Simon Evans View tickets

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Simon Evans: Have We Met?

Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Simon Evans is the best comedian regularly appearing on GB News – a dubious honour perhaps akin to being named Britain’s best-dressed paedophile. 

But since he’s joined that side in the culture wars, it’s given his stand-up a different context – punchlines that once played with the ambiguity of whether the joke was on the target of his intolerance or just him being a pompous curmudgeon now have the balance tipped towards punching down. 

When he refers to the ‘tattooed scum’ he sees on the streets of Brighton, it’s just nasty – though that harsh language is by far the most significant slip from his usual erudite, patrician demeanour. That said, deliberately calling Nicola Sturgeon ‘he’ is also a needlessly cheap joke that comes with all sorts of baggage about misgendering, even if the intent was childish.

Have We Met? is set up as an exploration of the comic’s failing memory in his mid-50s – though he’s always seemed a decade or two older than his years. He’s got the graphs to prove that his short-term recall is shot to bits, and he admits an increasing struggle to put names to face.

His long-term memory seems in fine fettle, mind, as there’s some old material in this advertised ‘brand new hour’, including the cornerstone routine about forgetting what he went upstairs for, which he rolls out as if it were an epic assault on Everest, fraught with setbacks. Even though he’s been doing it for years, it is relevant to the topic supposedly in hand – unlike much else in this piecemeal hour, which can’t seem to settle on a consistent thread.

We have a sizeable recap of the story that he told in his last, far superior, show in which a DNA test threw up surprising things about his heritage, while much of the rest of the hour is drawn from once-topical jokes he told on Radio 4’s News Quiz about the likes of Liz Truss killing the Queen by visiting her at Balmoral. Many are decent gags but using so many lends a feeling this is an hour of reheated leftovers, rather than something with purpose. 

In fact, it seems like he’s wandered into the Assembly’s Spiegletent and forgotten what he came in here for.

Published: 10 Aug 2023

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