Review: Sam Nicoresti: Cancel Anti Wokeflake Snow Culture

A fresh and raw multimedia journey through identity

★★★
comedy review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes
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Sam Nicoresti
Photo by Ed Moore
Published 12 Aug 2022

Going in feet-first on the right-wing comics and free speech ideologues sounding off about cancel culture, Sam Nicoresti's latest show is both admirably forthright in confronting the fascistic tendencies of that movement, especially towards the transgender, and artfully mischievous in pursuing its aims of ridiculing the more cynical blowhards among them. Moreover, he's got real skin in the game, having lately begun a journey of queer self-discovery that's still in a curious, questing form, affording his 50 minutes a freshness and raw vitality in tandem with its topicality, despite the reasonably slick multimedia he deploys and artistic sensibilities he aspires to.

Employing a twisted alter-ego, Nam Sicoresti, and big screen for faux-conversations with fellow gender spectrum sceptics, he's accomplished at exposing the fallacies of logic espoused by his enemies. Putting words in their mouths sure, but only to an extent. Better still are the more personal monologues he delivers directly to the audience, with a well-argued dismissal of the furore around toilets, just generally humanising the bitterly fought debate while getting in some recurring, enjoyable gags at the monarchy's expense.

Unfortunately, Nicoresti's thoughtfulness and investment in his subject matter also work against him, as he closes on an interminably lengthy and sincere set of conclusions that relegate the comedy to second place, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and affording succour and ammunition to his foes.