Review by Steve Bennett

Mickey D is clearly a man who knows how to party.  Not only is the majority of his show composed of war stories from seemingly every city known to man, but he is also late to the show after waking up in his Edinburgh flat moments before the show - and he certainly looks to be suffering for it.

Unfortunately, this almost ruins what eventually had  the makings interesting and personal premise, had it not been completely undecipherable for its majority.

There seems to be something slightly therapeutic for Mickey D in relating his previous tales of substance-induced madness, and its after-effects, to an audience. He can make people laugh with the descriptions of his occasionally slightly pathetic, but always off-the-rails, antics but he can also get these things off his chest. 

The purpose of this show is a combination of the two: to make people laugh but also to be accepted as himself, Michael Dwyer.

The show is therefore a compendium of his vices and their effects from online gambling to blacking out in the street.  Some of these he presents descriptively, as a straight stand-up routine, and others use lighting effects to elevate them into set pieces (such as his moments about being lost on the streets of London, or doing his first international gig on the Grassmarket in Edinburgh). 

Unfortunately, on this night, nothing works too well and the audience remain subdued throughout.

This can possibly be blamed upon errors in comic timing that repeatedly dull the effect of Mickey’s material.  He has a very energetic delivery that gets him completely involved in the stories that he tells, but often this emphatic energy just does not relent for long enough to let the gags have their full effect. 

Mickey is an experienced circuit comic, and these faults could just be the result of an anomalous bad show but tonight, they were a huge stumbling block.

It is a shame, though, because by the time Mickey sits on a stool at the front of a stage to round the show up and bring everything together, it becomes clear that the show has been well planned and could have been potentially very interesting, had it been more coherent.  Perhaps I just caught Mickey on his off night.

Review date: 1 Jan 2005
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett