Review by Steve Bennett

Dave McSavage has the patrician demeanour of an academic doing comedy. He’s a successful street performer, where presumably he uses more charm and warmth to draw in the crowd. Don’t get me wrong, he does command attention, but there’s a sternness about him which has more effect than the comedy.

He plays guitar, he sings, he has backing music, he keeps up his end of a one-sided dialogue, but none of it is that engaging. There’s a lot of guff about where people are from, standard compering tricks, discovering the huge Irish contingent in the room, plus Poles, and an Algerian/Turkish combo couple who became quite a feature of the show.

I don’t know if he’s got some kind of anti-comedy point to make, but the songs are never the finished article, and by the time he’s let another one fade to humming down his nose because there’s no easy scan to be had, it becomes irritating.

Fair enough, if you hold reviewers in contempt and throw down a gauntlet with your title, but the paying audience deserve a bit more meat, either by anecdote, punchline or playfulness.

There was rapt attention and chuckling, especially from his fellow Irish, but he gives off an air of contempt for what he is doing. He manipulates the audience to respond by his manner, rather than from any wit in the content.

Reviewed by: Julian Chambers

Review date: 1 Jan 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett