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James Wilson-Taylor: Ginger is the New Black

Redheads of the world can unite behind this pleasant hour
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James Wilson-Taylor: Ginger is the New Black

Redheads of the world can unite behind this pleasant hour

James Wilson-Taylor is proud of his roots. In Ginger is the New Black he hits back at the stigma attached to his fellow carrot-tops with a series of amiable songs, jokes and stories. There's nothing too dark in here; he makes no serious detours and the extent of the bullying he describes is pretty slim, which makes his wordplay on topical movements such as 'Black Lives Matter' (swapping the word 'black' for 'ginger') slightly incongruous for an otherwise breezy show.

Starting with a spot-on parody of Ed Sheeran, he quickly ingratiates himself to the crowd, frequently picking up his ukulele or tinkling his keyboard. These songs play to his strengths as a musical comedian, although anyone not up to speed with Game of Thrones may want to cover their ears during 'I'm Not Evil' where he claims benevolence while singing out spoilers.

This is a very pleasant hour with some nice songs and, to his credit, he manages to keep on-point through the whole show. During a section where audience members are asked to guess if an offensive comment was made by Katie Hopkins or Adolf Hitler, Wilson-Taylor has remarkably sourced a number of ginger-bashing insults from both the most despised person in history, and Adolf Hitler.
Underbelly Cowgate, until 28 Aug, 5pm, £9.50–£10.50 (£8.50–£9.50).

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