Nathan Caton: Straight Outta Middlesex

A key moment in Nathan Caton’s set comes when he gently mocks the audience that he’s picked up since being on Radio 4 last year. He recalls a nice, middle-class older lady who approached him after a show, exclaimed her fandom and then attempted a fist-bump. It nicely sums up a show that’s likeable, sometimes very funny, sometimes a little awkward and overly eager to please.

Caton is an appealing character: a middle-class boy from Greenford who’s from “West London” when he’s trying to be cool, or “Middlesex” when he’s talking to the police. He throws lines and turns of phrase out with faux-street casualness, all the while acknowledging that he's actually a bit of a dweeb.

The material itself is a mixed bag. Caton takes the popular view that “political correctness has gone way too far” and is funny on people’s quickness to take offence. A punter at a previous gig who accused him of anti-ginger "racism" is met with incredulity, as Caton points out that ginger’s not a race and wonders “when they got the upgrade”. He’s less convincing when he wheels out the hoary old myth that people are somehow trying to “ban Christmas”, which undermines the sincerity of the rest of the set.

There are some periods of slack between punchlines, and also in Caton’s overly polite audience interactions, in which he sometimes seems keener to be liked than to go for the laugh: a pitfall for a lot of young comics that Caton should be over by now. But this is distinctive, good-humoured and competent standup, which should encourage Radio 4 to come knocking again.