Rhys James blames Martin Lewis for the issues in just about everything, from pressuring him to keep his Gü jars in the back of his cupboard, to the dire state of the British economy. Fear not, for he is rebranding as a “rival money saving expert” so it should all be fixed in the next few years. Central to his manifesto is the “infinite money loop,” evident most obviously in the rise of Turkish barbers and prominence of Turkish hair transplants, of course! That’s not all James knows about though; he has an expansive (if fairly random) knowledge base, from “paedo hunters” to Clarke’s foot measuring machines to state schools. Despite having quite literally no clear ending, Chop Logic is an hour full of fun that’ll have you chuckling throughout.
Known largely for his frequent appearances in the panel show Mock the Week, one of James’ strengths is his quick punchlines — Chop Logic is no different. As is common with the first night of any show’s run, some jokes hit the audience harder than others, but James used this to build on his repertoire. When the audience responded poorly to a joke about the cost of living, he was quick to note “this is a crowd that was really hit hard by the M&S cyber-attack.” This quick-thinking wit was a speciality of the show, continually tailoring many of his jokes to this particular audience.
With many of the show’s key themes and jokes being about quintessentially British topics, it is certainly better suited for a British audience. I can imagine international audiences may struggle to relate to or see the humour in many of the jokes. Being British myself though, the niche experiences mentioned and name dropping of fellow British comedians was very entertaining.
A charming and charismatic comedian, Rhys James is en route to becoming a household name. Chop Logic is full of banging jokes and sarcasm, making it certainly worth a watch while you still can.
Rhys James: Chop Logic is running until 30 August at Cabaret Bar, Pleasance Courtyard. Buy tickets here.
Image by Matt Crockett, provided to The Student as press material.
