It is definitely not a surprise that Al Pitcher has had such a meteoric success. He has definitely left behind the tiny stand-up scenes and is now selling out big theatre scenes.
We had the PLEASURE (yes, I feel the need to write PLEASURE in capitals) to see his latest show Sverige Syndrome during its Stockholm premiere very recently. And it feels like it’s not enough to say it was pure magic. Every joke brought on a laugh after laugh, after laugh… and they just kept on coming. We have never laughed so much in such a short period of time.
Al Pitcher’s jokes are so perfectly refined and curated that he can take on the most Swedish of things, observe it, dissect it and put it out there for us to observe and start questioning “what is this??” Honestly all of us, especially us expats, are hostages of this Sverige Syndrome. We see all things Swedish, realizing how different they are from what we’re used to. But we don’t really comment on it, we just leave it be. You know, it’s Swedish, we’re not supposed to understand it, but embrace it. That’s the way things are, it’s the Sverige Syndrome, get over it already! But not Al… He still scrutinizes all this Swedishness and asks all the right questions. He sees these things for what they are, not so ordinary, kind of funny, but still sort of normal. And he does all that in the most faultless way.
Al Pitcher’s way to approach Swedes and everything around them comes from his everyday life, from his own experiences. Being married to a Swede and having two kids, he’s not afraid to use his own life as the source of all kinds of fun stuff. You will hear him joking about his confrontations with his two Swedish kids, growing up in Sweden. And him being a part New Zealander, part British guy, who has fallen in love with the country he is still trying to figure out.
His stories will take you from his younger days to his biggest Swedish contradictions, to borrowing a cat from the neighbours, to finding out about the audience’s own stories. You will not find a more hilarious and up-to-date comedy show in Sweden right now. Al Pitcher has mastered his art and he is really on the same level with major names on the international comedy scene.
He will be back in Stockholm in January 2018 and just this week new dates were announced for the spring. So if you’re in need of a laugh and a half – and aren’t we all these days – make sure you book your place to any of these shows soon, as all of Al’s shows tend to sell out very quickly. Find tickets here.
And just so that you see the level of fun we are talking about here, watch the two parts of the exclusive interview we did with Al Pitcher earlier this year.
