Matt Green: Truth & Pleasure – Fringe 2009
Live Review

It’s hard to imagine anyone would leave this show disappointed. It is as solidly satisfying as a carb-laden Fringe dinner. But, to extend the analogy far further than it warrants, it's also lacking in piquancy.

Green is a self-styled nerd who structures his show by way of a neat flipchart that details the topics he will be talking about -  money, pets, work etc. After some expert audience foreplay, which reveals a caustic wit not quite realised in the actual material, he gets going.

Seemingly mundane starting points – shatterproof rulers, computer passwords, schooldays – are worked up into commendable nuggets, thanks to Green's toolkit of exaggeration, anthropomorphism and out-and-out melodrama. He's got a good line in pithy similies – there's a lovely description of empty Woolworths stores haunting our high streets 'like cut-price Banquos'  - and the nous to wring extra value out of them by poking fun at his own geekery.

He tells a decent yarn too; a peculiar episode involving a rat, a bin and a very surprised member of the public is made all the more hilarious by the anticlimatic ending which no one could have foreseen, but everyone appears to relish.

There is a tendency, however, for Green to over-do his shtick. As he himself admits, after a muted response to a particularly smart wordplay: ‘That joke is more clever than funny... but it is clever.’And the white boy rapper gag with which he concludes his show has already been done by Dan Antopolski and others – and, unfortunately, Antopolski does it better.

There are virtually no lows in this set and Green proves himself an adept comic, it's just that the highs could do with being slightly higher.

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Red faced sweaty fast footed classically intellectual insight comedy with a twist of geek chic. Mr Green provides a stream of narrative that regularlyclimaxes in witty punchlines, so long as the sweat or speed doesn't distract you from missing the punchline. Though in all fairness he wins the award for worst front row heckler audience at a fringe preview: three builders who (due to their lack of reading anything but the Sun) resulted in all three deadpan mumbling throughout the show, but was fun for the audience to see Matt turn purple and paint the stage with his sweat. Verdict: go see it and be alert or you'll miss the punch. Not for anyone with less than three A levels. Matt: cue your audience for the jokes, and let them know when to laugh as the narrative between while necessary is lengthy but worth it when you do climax in all your sweaty joy.

Flanders, August 2011

It's been a year now since I saw Matt Green and I am still having nightmares. If only I'd turned left instead of right I could have been saved. :-(

AB, September 2010

I've very much indeed the show both times he has performed at XS Malarkey in the last couple of years and look forward to seeing him again. Although youthful in looks he comes across as self-assured and able and I REALLY loved his stories. I'd imagine that he could have a successful second career as a scriptwriter such is his wordsmithery.

Ben, January 2010

His hour long (my word that seemed like a long hour I'll never get back!) Barely raised a murmer. Nothing would have been funnier.

AO, August 2009

His hour long (my word that seemed like a long hour I'll never get back!) Barely raised a murmer. Nothing would have been funnier.

AO, August 2009

Not funny. I really can't emphasise that strongly enough. Weak material, poorly delivered. He did not handle hecklers well, as was proven the night we were there. He did catch the plastic cup, but missed the football and cork that were tossed his way. In a nutshell - crap.

AB, August 2009

Funny man with a real flair.

Cat, July 2009

Saw this guy at Phoenix and I reckon he has the makings of a star. It's true he's still a tad wet behind the ears but the material's sharp, witty and accessible - agree with Rick he's gonna get better and better!

Michael Monkhouse, June 2008

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