Thanks to my obsession with British panel shows I’ve become quite a fan of James Acaster. His series of Taskmaster was one of the show’s greatest, and he’s maybe the best Would I Lie to You? guest not named Bob Mortimer. I even occasionally listen to his and Ed Gamble’s Off Menu podcast even though I know almost nothing about food beyond the fact that I like to eat it. Part of Acaster’s appeal as a comedian is that he genuinely flirts with the line between sanity and insanity. His wit is razor-sharp but it’s clear from the stories he tells that his decision-making process is pretty fuzzy.
The “Classic Scrapes” collected in this volume are taken from Acaster’s appearances on his friend and fellow comedian Josh Widdicombe’s radio show. The scrapes are presented more or less in chronological order, with the earliest taking place during his childhood and the latter during his comedy career. I found the early stories dreadfully dull to be honest, and found it surprising that Acaster held them in enough esteem to include them here.
Most of the scrapes come about due to impulsive behavior, faulty assumptions, and a fear of being bored. Acaster is pretty honest in his self-assessments. Speaking of how he wound up spending the night outside a locked train station, Acaster seems genuinely mortified at how quickly he came to the decision to sleep in a bush instead of doing literally anything else. He also seems sincerely remorseful about some of the stuff his parents had to put up with, including an incident involving his mother’s home-grown strawberries that genuinely seems to haunt him.
While there are certainly some highlights, including the infamous “cabbaging” incident that made for a particularly memorable Would I Lie to You? segment and is just as funny on the page, overall this collection is hit or miss. Some of the scrapes are really very minor misunderstandings or miscommunications, or little breaches of etiquette that I’m sure were awkward in the moment but don’t really jump off the page. Perhaps the missing element here is Acaster’s delightfully off-kilter delivery. Often the scrapes are artificially lengthened by asides or corny jokes that would certainly work better hearing Acaster tell them as opposed to reading them.
Maybe I should have sprung for the audiobook.
