Chris Grace: 88% comedy review – An effortless triumph
Grace tackles being an imperfect liberal in a world dominated by Trumpian politics
Making knotty, zeitgeisty stand-up seem effortless, Chris Grace’s latest Fringe hour was inspired by a casually racist joke and expands into a punchily persuasive call for greater tolerance and robustness in debate, while putting much less stock in the values we all hold dear. Absurdly argumentative, unwilling to cede ground without an insane amount of research, Grace has many reasons to sit in a ‘defensive crouch’. As a gay, liberal, Asian-American, he’s at the intersection of a lot of prejudice and it would be easy for him to just retreat to a bunker and snipe. With a husband suffering severe health issues, the stakes are high for him to get things right. Yet, damn it, he’s really put himself out there in the gay saunas and fast food joints of the USA for his right to not maintain the illusion of being a right-thinking, perfect human being all the time. Compassion fatigue is real, hypocrisy innate. Thoughtful and consistently funny, he lays the foundations for a post-Trump world.
Chris Grace: 88%, Assembly George Square Studios, until 31 August, 1.40pm; picture: Jill Petracek.