Tom Stade
Review
I Swear Tour
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
8th December 2017
Click here for our interview with Tom
Review
I Swear Tour
Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
8th December 2017
Click here for our interview with Tom
Tom Stade rocked up to Southend’s Palace Theatre on the last gig of a tour that began its life at the Edinburgh Festival back in August. He is well known for being one of the hardest working comedians on the circuit right now and this is clearly with good reason.
With material still sounding as fresh as ever, despite having covered over a staggering 50 venues, Stade instantly justifies the reasons the tour has been given its I Swear title hitting the stage with a barrage of blasphemously strewn sentences - including the c-bomb - and sets the moral compass bar for evening, telling the audience, “If that upsets you, then you better f***king get out now!” Nobody did! The Stadinese Army were obviously all out in force and the Southend audience loved him.
The thing is, you can’t help but love him, with rock star good looks that belie his 47 years and a gruff Canadian accent, delivered with that laid back stoner attitude; even Stade has to chuckle at his jokes. He also endears; with his mock horror at the state of the theatre, wondering why he gets to play at the ‘shitty’ theatre and asking if it’s because we want to keep him as ‘our own little secret’.
Picking out members of the audience of varying ages to compare how each generation deals with the likes of social media and relationships makes for a hilarious evening’s entertainment, much to the delight of the rest of the audience.
Peppered with anecdotes about his own marriage (he has been with his wife, Trudy for 22 years) and the challenges of bringing up millennials - his daughter included, gave the audience plenty to laugh out loud about, along with references to his hatred of brussel sprouts, travels to Africa and his take on why coffee shops never advertise. If they did though, Stade could do well with some of the cracking and hilarious jingles he’s come up with. Somehow, though, I don’t think he’ll be giving up his comedy career to write advertising jingles any time soon - coffee shop advertising’s loss will remain, for now and I'm sure a long time to come, comedy’s gain!
Kim Tobin
tomstade.co.uk
With material still sounding as fresh as ever, despite having covered over a staggering 50 venues, Stade instantly justifies the reasons the tour has been given its I Swear title hitting the stage with a barrage of blasphemously strewn sentences - including the c-bomb - and sets the moral compass bar for evening, telling the audience, “If that upsets you, then you better f***king get out now!” Nobody did! The Stadinese Army were obviously all out in force and the Southend audience loved him.
The thing is, you can’t help but love him, with rock star good looks that belie his 47 years and a gruff Canadian accent, delivered with that laid back stoner attitude; even Stade has to chuckle at his jokes. He also endears; with his mock horror at the state of the theatre, wondering why he gets to play at the ‘shitty’ theatre and asking if it’s because we want to keep him as ‘our own little secret’.
Picking out members of the audience of varying ages to compare how each generation deals with the likes of social media and relationships makes for a hilarious evening’s entertainment, much to the delight of the rest of the audience.
Peppered with anecdotes about his own marriage (he has been with his wife, Trudy for 22 years) and the challenges of bringing up millennials - his daughter included, gave the audience plenty to laugh out loud about, along with references to his hatred of brussel sprouts, travels to Africa and his take on why coffee shops never advertise. If they did though, Stade could do well with some of the cracking and hilarious jingles he’s come up with. Somehow, though, I don’t think he’ll be giving up his comedy career to write advertising jingles any time soon - coffee shop advertising’s loss will remain, for now and I'm sure a long time to come, comedy’s gain!
Kim Tobin
tomstade.co.uk