Iain Stirling: Relevant

Aberdeen Music Hall

In a truly remarkable fashion, Iain Stirling laces his new stand-up hour Relevant with an evocation of nostalgia coupled with intense, good-natured self and general deprecation. Accidental nostalgia must come with the territory when you’re a beloved children’s tv show presenter, but with Stirling it’s different. It’s not nostalgic like watching Friends 30 years later, but more in line with watching a comedic talent that is still consistently and effortlessly funny no matter how much time has passed since you last saw him that brings a lot of joy.

The last time I watched Stirling perform was about a decade ago at a small, cosy Pleasance venue at the Edinburgh Fringe. That show was essentially my introduction to stand-up. Initially I felt that my friends had thrown me in the metaphorical deep end, but the jokes were so universal in tone and subject matter, that I found myself deeply enjoying myself, and experiencing that kind of high elation that is generated after watching something profoundly amazing. So seeing Stirling a decade later with the same friend who took me initially to see him, evoked a movement of involuntary self-reflection that feeds into the joy of seeing him perform stand-up again. It’s the feeling of being at very different points in your life and the fact that it it feels like three decades have passed between everything that has happened. And it really becomes clear that Stirling’s comedy can be enjoyed universally, no matter where you are in life, no matter what is happening in the world. There are few comedians who can do this, and Stirling is definitely one of them.

Relevant is a show that in its mockery of the small things, also shows appreciation for them, making fun of the moments of mundanity that occur within the everyday. Stirling has such a rapid and almost nervous rate at which he performs, which doesn’t let us sit too long with a moment or a joke before sprinting off to the next part. And in that way, Stirling creates a bubble around Relevant, making it a stand-up hour that just provides respite from the 24 hour news cycle and general chaos of life. Stirling makes us forget that something exists beyond the four walls of the venue and his show.  Whilst he does use his stage to impart necessary wisdom and rhetoric, for the most part he concentrates the show’s purpose in making people laugh and he more than succeeds in that endeavour.

This is such an easy stand-up hour to love and laugh at; it’s intensely self-deprecating in a good-natured sort of way, especially when Stirling relates it as part of his own individual experience. In his generalisations, the material occasionally falls flat, but he is able to quickly recover the dip in the atmosphere with the sheer energy that he possesses as part of his performance. Because he doesn’t just perform this set, Stirling thrives and revels in it. In this way Steve Bugeja’s support act fits in nicely with Stirling’s show, and the two comedians complement each other incredibly well. 

Stirling is just one of those comedians that looks at home on the stage; it’s not a performance, it’s second nature. He tells a story, he talks to us, and in that he creates a relaxed show and atmosphere that makes room for both the mundane and the important things. Stirling is incredibly talented and we can only hope that Relevant is the beginning of a string of stand-up hours coming our way.

By Katerina Partolina Schwartz

Photo Credit: Matt Crockett