Review: Alan Parker undefined Urban Warrior
Evening Mail Birmingham Comedy Festival
Tuesday 7 October 2003, The Cheeky Monkey Comedy Club, The Station, Kings Heath, B'ham
By David Freak
"Radical problems, radical solutions," that's the message preached by Simon Munnery's comic creation Alan Parker, a street-level left wing radical now lost in a Blair-ite world.
Making waves on the comedy circuit back in the early '90s, Parker was a post-punk preacher, a warped Citizen Smith for the Thatcher years whose call to arms included 'Locks on our doors - not our hearts!' and 'Unite & fight!'
Ten years on, and Parker still has plenty to say about equality, sexual politics, consumer society ("The Bullring? Knock it down!") and life on the fringes as he relates failed attempts to bring together opposing football fans, uniting them in their hatred of him, and decides that if the Government always lies - then logically smoking must be good for you.
He may be a throw-back to a strangely bygone era of protest, but the misguided anti-fascist Parker remains a comedic force, rightly earning rapturous applause as he left the stage of the heaving Cheeky Monkey Comedy Club.
After such a performance, it's just a shame that Munnery has decided to retire his bedsit anarchist, although as anyone who has caught the performer's own set will know, there's plenty more superb material in Munnery's arsenal just waiting to get out.
Comedy Festival 
