By AARON McGILLIVRAY
Last year in Edinburgh, Simon Evans presented his show Genius to near universal acclaim.
A full throttle attack on the evident decline of intelligence in public life, The Scotsman called it a vortex of despair but also a masterclass in socio-political comedy – Five Stars’.
Opposed to common wisdom regarding the limitations of comedy as an engine for social change, the show worked. Evans’ warnings of a descent into full-scale idiocracy have been heeded in just the nick of time. Everything’s much better now, thank you very much.
Just kidding. Nothing’s changed. We are all doomed.
Nevertheless, Evans is undeterred. One might even suspect that he actually relishes the Bosch-like Garden of the 21 Century Earthly Delights that continues to unfold before his eyes.
Meanwhile, un-ironically self-identified intellectuals – Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand – are selling out the O2 arena with nothing more than joke-free thinking to entertain the masses. Is this the dawn of a new age of Genius-Worship?
Could Evans’ goal of re-launching in that mode finally be in his sights?
Very probably. Now watch him knock it out the park.
Simon Evans has been a regular at Edinburgh since headlining 1998’s The Comedy Zone and has performed popular and critically-acclaimed shows at venues and festivals around the world – Montreal, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, Aspen, Switzerland, Norway and many more.
His most recent UK tour, Genius, has been selling out venues around the UK, following critical acclaim at the Fringe last year.
