York Theatre Royal – 31 January 2024
Touring until 1st March
Reviewed by Janina Cairns
5*****
Guz Khan kicked off his tour at the wonderful York Theatre Royal. If you are not familiar with the York Theatre Royal, then you are missing a treat. It is over 250 years old and still a favourite of theatre goers. If you arrive by car, there are 3x car parks within approx. 10 mins walk of the theatre.
Guz Khan’s tour covers 11 venues and is on until 1st March. You can find full details at www.guzkhanlive.co.uk. There doesn’t seem to be many tickets left for this funny stand-up show so be quick to book yours. The topics and mild swearing, although certainly not as much as a lot of comedians out there, gives the age rating of 16 and above. Looking around before the show began, I noticed a full range of ages ready to be entertained. A sign that Gus can relate to various age ranges.
The warm up act for the York leg of the tour was from Yorkshire’s own funny man, Pete Selwood who set the tone and tickled the funny bones warming us up nicely for the main man Guz Khan.
I knew about Guz from his TV appearances on shows like Taskmaster, Man like Mobeen, Live at the Apollo, and from breaking into movies when he starred alongside a string of A-Listers in Army of Thieves. So tonight, I was intrigued, as I had not seen him do a full stand-up set and I am pleased to say, I thoroughly enjoyed his set.
Guz came out smiling and had us laughing within minutes. He got good audience participation. He chose people to interact with – but didn’t “pick” on them per say. He regaled us with anecdotes about his life and family and kept it honest and real with observations and his own take on situations. It wasn’t filled with sexism, constant swearing and the like, but with honesty, hilarity, home life and his impressions of the country. I found his style of comedy quite wholesome, and barmy. He doesn’t sugar coat things, but he has no disillusions about himself too which makes him very personable. The number of times the audience laughed and clapped, whistling their appreciation at the end, showed that he won over Yorkshire easily.
So, if you fancy a good old chuckle and have a free night, go to his website and check out his dates and locations. Buy a ticket and enjoy yourself. You won’t be disappointed.