Review: TOM LAWRINSON: BURIED ALIVE AND LOVING IT, Soho Theatre

“I’ve got an hour of weird jokes. Do you wanna hear them?”

This is the story of a shirtless boy who lived underground in Spain. In Tom Lawrinson: Buried Alive and Loving It, the comedian is getting a bit more personal with his audiences, telling them about his childhood and how he believes it has had an effect on him as an adult. Lawrison tells the audience of how he was raised cheap, giving a great anecdote about his passion for price matching and the situations he has ended up in because of it, including one at Go Outdoors.

The main focus of Buried Alive and Loving It is the fact that while Lawrinson’s parents want what is best for the family, they have a tendency to not think too far ahead when making plans, which leads to situations like the one Lawrinson finds himself in as a young boy, with his family leaving everything in England behind and starting a new life in Spain. He soon finds himself growing up around bars and only gets a room of his own when his father decides to dig a hole, a living situation, which Lawrinson compares to Josef Fritzl, saying “Been there, girl” - though he admits he didn’t have all the same experiences as Fritzl’s daughter. 

But even with these more personal anecdotes, that’s not to say the Lawrinson’s absurd sense of humour from his last show, Hubba Hubba, has changed. One of the signature aspects of Lawrinson’s comedy is his tendency to go off on tangents - some the audience is on board with, others not so much. The tangents in this show include the inevitability of Simpsons porn, sex toys in Big Tesco, the phrase “drunk actions are sober thoughts” and Fred Flintstone’s work ethic.

Lawrinson has a gift for callbacks, including those made from audience interaction. From the beginning, he questions why the audience is not out at bonfires (I attended the show on 5 November) and comes to the conclusion that most of the audience members are orphans, which eventually leads to the incredible line, “Some of the orphans love the smell of sick.”

One of the highlights of the show is seeing how Lawrinson reacts to the crowd. He tends to make a few comments when jokes don’t land, including one that he acknowledges never gets laughs, but because his mum likes it, he’s “gotta leave it in for Mum.” Sometimes, when he doesn’t get the reaction he expects, Lawrinson simply laughs and moves on, which gets the audience laughing as well, bringing back the energy that may have been lost in that moment. 

Ultimately, Tom Lawrinson: Buried Alive and Loving It is a show that gives audiences a peek into Lawrinson’s world, one full of bizarre moments. As Lawrinson himself aptly puts it, “I’ve got a very unusual family and stuff.” Indeed, both the family and the “stuff” make for a fun hour of comedy. In a conversation with himself on stage, Lawrinson says, “That was weird.” “I know.” Buried Alive and Loving It may be a weird show, but it is in the best way possible.

Tom Lawrinson: Buried Alive and Loving It runs until 9 November at Soho Theatre.

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