Russell Howard: Recalibrate review — An audacious stand-up but mediocre example of British comedy

Paedophilia, epilepsy, terrorism, a lesbian Queen Elizabeth, charities, bestiality, sexual assault and God being a prick. These are just some of the things Russell Howard makes fun of in his new stand-up special: Recalibrate. It is extremely bawdy, irreverent and quintessentially British. It has tremendous potential to offend practically everyone and if there was ever a stand-up which should come with a warning, this is it. Howard is by no means a big name in comedy. He has been on the British comedy circuit for some time now though and with Netflix basically giving every comedian their own stand-up special, this is his introduction to the world. And he does alright, sort of. The material itself is quite personal. Howard has a pretty funny family and he has a lot of stories he tells about them. They also become somewhat of a proxy for his jokes. So the most disgusting jokes are always somehow made by his brother and the nastiest comments seem to come from his father. Howard needs this because he is essentially a nice-guy comedian. Someone who is not a prick himself, but just happens to be around when weird things happen. [caption id=“attachment_4275145” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Russell Howard in Recalibrate. Netflix[/caption] This nicety shows through all across in Recalibrate. He talks of his sadness at the number of women who self-harm, disses Donald Trump, tells sweet stories about his granddad and has tales about his time working for a charity in Africa. And this does not seem to be an act because he has done good work before. In particular, his inviting a 14-year-old cancer survivor to end one of his stand-ups in a penis costume remains one of best endings to a stand-up I’ve ever seen. Howard is also great at physical comedy. In particular, he is a gifted voice artist and his accents (though borderline offensive) are extremely funny. He brings a lot of energy in his act with exaggerated struts and folding-over-in-embarrassment antics. His facial tics (also borderline offensive sometimes) are spot-on and do very well to complement his material. The jokes themselves go up and down a lot. And there is a common pattern in them. When he goes really nasty, with jokes offensive enough to land him in jail were he to even think those words in India, he is a riot. Those are the jokes that make you question your moral conscience after you stop laughing at them. And those jokes are very, very audacious: like an ugly child meeting a paedophile or Queen Elizabeth rubbing her vagina on a dead Donald Trump’s face. Howard probably describes these jokes best when he says, “it isn’t right, but it’s funny.” On the flipside, when he starts telling stories of his (extremely adorable) mother and how his family bonds even at funerals is when the whole show goes a little flat. It is cute and makes you smile but it is not exactly hilarious. Howard — like so many other comedians — also takes up the mantle of being a crusader who is calling out the wrongs in our society. The title of the show is meant to tell us to recalibrate, to change how we think. However, he fails in any significant way to justify the title and there is simply no great message which comes out of it. Recalibrate then is a mediocre example of British comedy. It will not appeal to a lot of people simply because of the style it uses which is downright offensive in some places. However there is a large enough audience which loves British comedy. They swear by Richard Ayoade and Ricky Gervais, watch reruns of The Inbetweeners and The IT Crowd and are positively giddy with excitement when Jimmy Carr drops his Big Fat Quiz of the Year (which incidentally is right around the corner, hurray!) It is from these people then, that Howard will get the giggles. Sadly however, it is not a great stand-up even for them as he seems to have tailored some of the jokes for a broader audience. This means that he ends up neither here nor there and in its entirety, the show is a bust with a couple of gems in-between. If you enjoy British comedy, you could maybe give Recalibrate a shot (though I would advise against it). If you have not seen much of British comedy then give this one a miss and pick up the other great stuff out there like The Office (UK) or Peep Show or basically anything with Stephen Fry in it.