Opinion: Give Miranda Hart a chance…
I doubt I’m the only person cynical about Miranda Hart’s venture into the stand-up scene. Who doesn’t feel a little queasy when a sitcom favourite – and she undoubtedly is that – decides to go out on a debut stand-up tour, let alone one as big as Hart’s, covering the biggest comedy venues in the UK. Is she doing it for the money?, I hear you ask, but perhaps more importantly, can she do it well?
One big name comedian – who’ll remain nameless, but plays theatres rather than arenas – suggested that Hart was in over her head, and that the motivation behind her 2014 tour can’t be to better herself at stand-up, otherwise she’d have chosen venues where comedy flies rather than echoes.
Motives aside for a moment, it’s interesting to see so many people questioning her capability as a writer. It’s quite right that stand-up is an entirely different beast, meticulously edited and polished for public consumption. And stand-up audiences can be particularly unforgiving in a way that cuddly sitcom audiences would be disgusted with. But the proof, as they say, is in the pudding, and there’s no doubt in my mind she’s got funny bones.
You only have to look at her performance in Miranda, which she writes remember, to know she’s a funny woman, and if you do a quick YouTube search you’ll see her previous live performances – mainly short sets on charity galas – aren’t too shabby either. If it’s a toss-up between watching Only Fools and Horses repeats, playing games on partycasino.com or seeing Miranda Hart live, well, you can do the former two any night of the week.
Is the cynicism derived from a gender bias? It’s certainly interesting that any criticism of Hart is followed by insults about her physical appearance, in the same way that people try and knock the likes of Sarah Millican and Josie Long, who’ve gone on to prove themselves as top comics.
Hart has that same drive behind her writing as Millican and Long, so maybe we should, you know, give her a chance; reviews should be written after the show, not a year prior. Give her a chance to prove her worth on the biggest stage possible, and if she isn’t up to standard…well, at least you’ll be justified in your criticism then.
