Jerry Sadowitz - ‘The Total Abuse Show’ VHS Review

Jerry Sadowitz - ‘The Total Abuse Show’ VHS Review - Magical Misanthropic Madman’s Debut Show is Mesmerising from Beginning to End

For reference, this article was originally written in December 2022, and it has been sitting on the shelf, as it were, ever since. But with Jerry’s new tour starting in less than four weeks, I thought it an appropriate time for it to see the light of day.

Jerry Sadowitz has received universal praise from all around the comedy circuit for his unique blend of magic and furious, rambling monologues, acting as the progenitor to much of the edgy, taboo comedy purveyed by Frankie Boyle, Ricky Gervais and the like today. 'The Young Ones'' Alexei Sayle once said that Sadowitz was "the best stand up gig [he] ever saw", and the late, great Sean Hughes commented that "on his day when the rage was focused it's the best comedy I've seen come out of Britain ever", while in the same TV segment also being described as "the most shocking comedian in Britain." Yet, despite this, not unlike another brilliant comedian Mr. Daniel Kitson, Jerry remains very secretive outside of his tour shows. Notorious also for monitoring and striking content featuring him with an iron fist, he only ever released one stand up special: a recording of his first show, 'Total Abuse', in 1987. So having not seen him live ever before, yet being intrigued by his reputation for immense controversy, particularly after his recent Edinburgh Fringe banning, I just had to see what all of the fuss was about.

Now the one thing you need to know about Sadowitz is that principally, what he does is a character act. He said in an interview last year that "Sometimes I say things for pure spite. Mainly I just try to be funny. [...] I quite enjoy the fact that there’s a fine line with what I do. That people can laugh at the irony and at face value." While that may be true, it also feels like, simply put, Sadowitz is fully aware that nobody can take a bowler hat wearing madman magician sporting a Denace the Menace fan club badge very seriously. However he’s also previously set out to make clear the differences between him and the other offensive, anti-PC comics he is sometimes lumped in with, saying after his Fringe cancellation: “I am not [Jim Davidson] folks... a lot of thought goes into my shows and [...] and I don't always agree with my own conclusions [...] There's a lot of silly, exaggerated irony and nonsense, real, fake, and exaggerated anger and bile, and even getting my dick out is for the purpose of the funny line which follows it.” So no matter how outrageous the things he says and does are, with this knowledge in mind, you can tell that there's always a bit of a figurative wink and nudge to what he does, which to me makes it all the more enjoyable.

So now, onto the main focus of this article: the special itself. It becomes clear from it's opening minutes that Sadowitz, true to reputation, is pulling no punches, launching into a flurry of comical magic tricks including but not limited to: doing the “Ethiopian version” of the rabbit in the hat trick with a particularly starved looking bunny, demonstrating “water juggling”, or his pair of “voodoo balls”, and displaying his lack of ability to make balloon animals, instead bringing out a human one he "made earlier'', and humourously declaring they're both running for the Labour Party. Of course the detail I left out is that what he's actually doing is aggressively dry humping a blow up sex doll on stage, only after asking if there were any feminists in. Another one would be him pulling a red clown nose out of his pants, whacking it on the end of his penis and shouting "comic relief", although the camera conveniently cuts away to the audience's varied reactions in this instance. I was amused by all of this of course, and laughed quite a bit, but more than anything I was just awestruck by the sheer force and oddity of what was occurring in front of me. Additionally, there are a number of magic tricks that are genuinely very impressive, involving shaking the polka dots off of handkerchiefs, some good, old-fashioned card tricks, and a particularly impressive trick involving an audience member’s 5 pound note. Although I’ll admit having these brilliant and hilariously bad magic tricks coalescing gives the special a bit of a sense of whiplash, it just adds to its madcap appeal.

Although of course what defines Jerry’s act arguably more than his magic tricks, are his infamous, no-holds-barred, rage-fuelled rants, and as always, it seems as though Jerry hates absolutely everything. He hates people from Dundee “cos they’re thick as fuck and don’t deserve jobs”, reckons we should “slaughter old people at birth” to stop them from winning newspaper competitions, he hates Ethiopians because “if we keep giving them money they’ll start asking for clothes”, and hates Arab hijackers because “a hijack takes a lot of time, planning and preparation, and they only kill two people.” Others on his hit list include students, overly smug Tory voters, Derek Batey (who he reckons invites senile old people on “Mr and Mrs” on purpose), the general concept of jokes, “cunt” Nelson Mandela, Jesus, and of course, himself. So safe to say, literally no-one is safe. There was of course also an amusing diatribe about probable “child-bender” Jimmy Saville (baring in mind this was 1987) only available on the vinyl version, which Saville’s lawyers sought to make a rarity quite quickly (although the clip is listenable here). Regardless, the main point is that the more random and ridiculous his targets become, and the more unbelievably furious and hysterical his rants become, the more it borders on complete farce, and the more hilarious it ends up being. 

You might well be asking how I can genuinely tell the difference between Sadowitz’s misanthrope stage persona, and the irritatingly blunt “anti-wokeness” others engage in. It’s a good question, and one that can only be answered via a recount of another routine. He says he’s workshopping a new character for Friday Night Live, and references Harry Enfield’s character Stavros - a Greek kebab shop owner - and his controversial nature. What’s the relevance? Well, following that, he debuts his own character called Raj, donning a table covering as a Turban and saying things like “I make a living off short-changing people, wear pyjamas all day, and take my whole family with me when I piss.” Now I would argue that this bit is so preposterous and cartoonishly racist that you can’t possibly take it seriously, and crucially, he knows that, a point strengthened by his gloriously sarcastic subsequent question of “do you think that’s controversial? I don’t know.” But of course it’s not all just unhinged rants and magic tricks that comprise Jerry’s act. Surprisingly, there are, despite his apparent disdain for them, a few jokes here or there, including one that’s “particularly good” about Tina Turner and an orangutan, a hilariously dark Tommy Cooper tribute, a story of a master handyman defined by dubious sexual interests, as well as a few suitably off-colour poems. I’ll put it this way, I never would have thought I’d hear poems about men with self suckable penises or “swimming in the depths of someone’s quim”, until I watched this. However, again, despite how horrific the things he says may seem, as he is quick to remind an audience member: “what I do is jokes. I don’t actually mean it”, although given his slightly manic looking facial expression in this instance, you can never be too sure.

Speaking of audience members, that’s yet another dynamic that makes this show so incredible to watch: Jerry’s audience interaction. But inevitably, like all other aspects of his act thus far, his involvement with and of the audience is absolutely ruthless. This isn’t just your typical “pick a card” or “where are you from?” type affair, aside from a few instances near the end. Instead what Jerry does is at many points, like the famous people he lambasts, he has the audience become the objects of his derision, and it’s fair to say he doesn’t let them off lightly. Denying a volunteer’s help because “he’s too fat”, asking another if there was “any chance of a fuck” (“it’s the only chance I get to meet the fuckers”), spitting on people and declaring himself “AIDS Man”, threatening to kill a particularly smart-arsed bloke, and getting “distracted” by a certain woman’s thighs (I’ll let you figure out what the quote marks are for). Perhaps the most amusing is when the audience member who gave his 5 pound note to Jerry earlier in the show comes on stage and Jerry observes how, “what I do is jokes […] but you genuinely look evil.” All of which shows that Jerry’s pure, unfiltered rage and apparent instability, as farcical as they may be, eventually infect every corner of his show, including anger at his magical abilities not being well received. And although such levels of rage and bizarre behaviour might be slightly uncomfortable at points, it makes the show all the more of a comedy marvel in just how purely dedicated Jerry is to his larger-than-life, bile-fuelled persona, for which I have to give huge props. Although, as a final note, I would say that in comparison to his newer material, you could say this looks like the Chuckle Brothers in comparison. This is still great, don’t get me wrong, this is great, but for the real thing, you need to go see him

So I think it’s fair to say that I really enjoyed this. Jerry lived up to his reputation and delivered just under an hour of absolutely ruthless, brutal and hilarious comedy and magic, not to mention his dedication to the bit is at many points seriously impressive. I know this might sound clichéd, but Mr. Sadowitz proved himself to be in a league of his own, and I genuinely don’t think there’s anything quite like him out there, or indeed that there ever will be. So while a copy of this might run you a pretty penny (that is if torrent sites are disregarded), I highly recommend it. Of course, as I say, you should also go and see his next show near you, and witness this force of nature for yourself, but be prepared for anything, and I mean anything.

Jerry’s ‘Comedian, Musician, Psychopath’ 2024 Tour begins on 28th February. Find tickets here.