A new comedian struggles to be born in Jack Whitehall’s new show, which itself heralds an imminent birth, that of the comic’s first child. After the trivial first half of Settle Down, Whitehall promises substantial comedy after the interval. But that substance is endlessly deferred, until the self-described “foppish man-child” pivots, re-branding Settle Down as his last inconsequential show before parenthood and enforced maturity descends.
We’ll see. I don’t hold my breath for the grownup version of this perennial kidult – Whitehall is very wedded to the comedy of “I’m a massive melt!” But there are signs that the 34-year-old is at least trying to express a meaningful opinion or reveal something of his actual self. Is his failure to do so a matter of artistic ability, or pathology? Repeatedly tonight he cites his horror of therapy, of ever being made to express his feelings – which may be why his comedy comes across as so inauthentic. But that’s also an artistic issue: Whitehall’s routines often feel basic, their subject matter secondhand, their formulas predictable.
What redeems them, again, is his flair for performance, as one after another thin set-piece is brought to swaggering cartoonish life. OK, so the ones about going on safari with a family of outsized Floridians, and about the supposed mortification of dining alone, seldom ring true. But at least the gig flares into life at these animated moments – before sputtering again with a gigglesome routine about not understanding menstruation, or another weak joke imagining Whitehall might be gay.
All of this is meant to be counterpoised by our host’s reflections on being in love, owning a (very expensive) dog and expecting a child. But, while he gets decent comedy out of his girlfriend’s inquisitive TV habits, his engagement with this stuff remains superficial. At isolated moments only, he tries to give us something more, about his social anxiety, say, or with an uncharacteristic homily on how “we should be celebrating representation wherever we see it”. Is the boy finally becoming a man? Maybe so, but on this evidence, he won’t put aside childish things without a struggle.
