Even if you don't think much of his comedy you have to admire Jack Whitehall's work ethic. This week alone he has this one-off live show coming out on Netflix, a new series Bounty Hunters on Sky and it has just been announced that he is to appear in the forthcoming live action Disney version of The Nutcracker. Good news for both Whitehall and, no doubt, his bank account.
And while it probably won't win over the people who like to put the boot in, his live special is actually good fun to watch. It's basically an edited version of his At Large UK tour with some pithy international references frontloaded for a transatlantic audience. At the very start he notes the difference between English dinner party drinking and American dinner party drinking. In America four glasses of win means you have a drink problem, while "In Britain you're the designated driver."
Whitehall certainly never undersells a gag. Everything is delivered at breakneck speed and breakneck volume, from the British reluctance to complain to the rise of healthy foods. It can only be a matter of time, he quips, before McDonald's is selling McQuinoa. Occasional verbal tsunamis make him sound a little like a privately educated Russell Brand.
He is at his best, of course, mocking his own poshness, particularly in a story about going to Amsterdam with his mates Digby and Rupert and smoking some "weedy puff". He does have a slightly annoying tic of making mistakes, such as calling weed "weedy puff" and then building elaborate giggly riffs out of his embarrassment. Some are possibly scripted, some are possibly genuine bloopers. Either way he should maybe do it a bit less often.
But this is a minor criticism. Whitehall's crowdpleasing self-mocking routines also take in topics including meeting the royals, his rivalry with his old school chum Robert Pattison and that old favourite, airport security. And, inevitably there is a brief cameo from his father Michael, looking suitably curmudgeonly in the Eventim Apollo audience.
It's not groundbreaking stuff but there is no denying that Whitehall can put on a show. Haters are still gonna hate, the rest of you – if you have Netflix – can sit back and enjoy.
Watch on netflix.com.
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