Jonny Pelham: Just Shout Louder

Self-deprecation is a standup comedy staple, yet more often than not it reeks of contrivance and self-obsession, the preserve of narcissists and hacks who slavishly cultivate outlandish images. Jonny Pelham is different in that references to his various slight disfigurements achieve a palpable sense of catharsis. He's so hard on his physical appearance and personality flaws—his commentary going far beyond what anyone else could think in even their cruellest moments—that he reaches a position of security, where nothing can hurt him. It's from here that he delivers routines equal parts caustic and vulnerable that other acts would have a tough time selling.

He explains that this has been a good year for him, the comic having engaged meaningfully in politics for the first time and even having found love. This thread of self-satisfaction would doubtless be less palatable in other hands, but in Pelham's it seems hard won, as though he's achieved a semblance of normality after a wasted life. It's his good humoured recollections of what seem now to be wilderness years that form the bulk of this set.

Born into an academic family and raised by a therapist, Pelham is instinctively self-aware and goes deep in his psychoanalysis. When he turns his eye to society as a whole, he reaches conclusions others would prefer not to face, but are all the better for hearing as part of a supportive audience.