Simon Donald's School Of Swearing

Simon Donald’s new show favours a style similar to Robin Ince that, to coin a phrase for the wordlover, could be classed ‘docu-comedy.’ His School of Swearing gives the history and evolution of swearwords while placing them in the comic context of his own quips. Cerebral filth this is, citing Germaine Greer, Ian Dury, and Johnny Rotten in its footnotes. 

 At 48, the co-founder of adult Beano mag Viz is still charmingly enamoured with the childish gag, though he doesn’t perform live his typical comic-book caricatures. Dressed as an anarchic headmaster, Donald gives a mock-term at his School of Swearing complete with exams and zany last-day antics. He even wheels out a TV to keep the class interested with an interactive gameshow of Celebrity Swears, teaching the favourite profanities of Stewart Lee and the like. “Can anyone put that word in a sentence for me?” he asks the crowd with affected condescension gesturing at a compound obscenity. 

Donald’s not just been browsing Urban Dictionary but reflecting touchingly on his own swearing biography. Highlights include the magical Disneyland moment when he realised he could add an ‘e’ to ‘shit’. His passion further leads him to rail vigorously against targets such as censorship laws as well as the more obvious Piers Morgan-shaped digs.

Those looking for a solid hour of laughs may be disappointed. Early on Donald teaches us that swear words stimulate a different part of your brain than normal words. This witty and scintillating smutfest stimulates all areas.