Reginald D. Hunter - Milton Keynes Theatre Show Reviewed

Last night Reginald D. Hunter played to an almost capacity audience at Milton Keynes Theatre on the fifth night of his The Man Who Attempted to do as Much as Such tour. The almost exclusively white audience heard this intelligent black American comedian who has been based in the UK for a decade and a half now launch into an intelligent yet challenging set which mixed identity politics with sex and swearing.

At the beginning of the show Hunter acknowledged that part of the audience would be new to his work, drawn by the recent successful documentary series on BBC2 Sounds of the South where he went on a musical journey through the Deep South. He apologised in advance if that part of the audience were offended, but stayed true to himself and it appeared he did not seek to self-moderate in light of the more diverse following he now has. He also made clear that because it was so early in this tour which has around 40 dates in the UK between now and the end of June, before moving on to other parts of Europe he had not loosened up yet.

The theme running through the first half of his show but which was diminished in the second half was based around the distain he had for the British tax man who was asking for 52% of his earnings. It was a topic which was good as far as it went but after a while became just a little bit wearing.

During that first half, which was apparently cut short due to Hunter facing some eye problems, one of the most interesting bits of the show which began to emerge was the way in which he would drop in public information without it appearing as such. There was a small but important bit of the show when he talked about the signs of prostate cancer and the need for blokes to get medical help if they saw blood in the toilet. It was a really small bit which was wrapped in moving humour but the point was it was there.

A dominant theme in the set which started to emerge in the first half and grew in the second was Hunter’s response to contemporary feminism. This was intelligent and thought provoking and in the second half of the show he spelt out very clearly about how to understand it you have to listen to all that he says and not focus on specific words. He does use c**t and pussy liberally within the set primarily using the former as an insult and the latter with regard to that part of a woman’s genitalia. Yet in his use of them he seems to be disempowering them, showing that they are simply words like any other. The way this is underlined is by the way he also uses nigger in a similar way. Thus, I would argue his use of these terms is not problematic but rather in not treating them in a taboo way he is actually empowering women and others. 

With regard to the key thrust of the material around contemporary feminism it was making clear that feminism is a justice issue related to the giving of women true power by giving them respect and authority. He spoke out against the strand of feminism which is separatist and seeks to apparently empower women by disempowering and emasculating men. He likened it to the strand of the black civil rights movement which sought to separate itself from whites and not acknowledge that without some white allies the struggle would not have achieved what it has.

I think in his reading of the past he was overly generous to both first and second wave feminism which he argued did not have any of the current problems. Both these movements had splits between those who were and weren’t advocating a form of political separatism. The point is the material was intelligent and he was making some important yet sometimes challenging points regarding the place of allies and respect for them.

This material was mixed in with giving men a sex education lesson on how to make love with women rather than make love to them. It was interesting and I hope that some of what he was saying was not lost on the men who made up at least 50% of the audience.

There was a nervousness at points in this show and it was clear that Hunter was still picking up what worked and what didn’t amongst his new material as well as still familiarising himself with some of it. He also hasn’t got the hang of the timings yet as was shown in the second half when he had to check how many minutes in he was and by implication how much longer he had to perform for. I would like to see the show towards the end of the tour when he has really settled in to see how it differs then when he is far more relaxed.

Overall was it worth the somewhat high ticket price for the show? Yes, it was a challenging yet intelligent show which was making some important points. Some were subtle and some were more crude but the point was they were about things which need discussing. As a Christian I did find some of his material very difficult but also helpful because it made me think about a challenging aspect of the teachings of the church. As part of the LGBT community and a woman did I find some of the language he was using unsettling? Of course, however, that was the point as anyone familiar with Shakespeare will be aware. The fool’s role is to unsettle us by being the one who sees it clearly and calls us on those things which we need to think more deeply about. That’s what Hunter was doing.