Review by Steve Bennett

What a half-baked show this is, neither good cabaret nor good comedy, but a shapeless collection of often ill-thought-out ideas desperate for a strong directorial hand. Yet, surprisingly, this is a revival of a show Colin Lane performed last year, so lack of preparation can’t be blamed for what felt more like a self-indulgent work in progress that the finished article.

With the stand-up sections, the suave Lano is deliberately aiming for the sort of awkward comedy that comes from a clumsy, under-ripe performance – but ‘so bad, it’s good’ is a difficult trick to pull off, and for all his experience, too often we’re just left with the embarrassed pauses and not the accompanying humour.

The thread of the show – that he’s a fuddy-duddy who doesn’t quite understand music’s appeal – isn’t drawn out strongly enough. And, besides, how convincing can that argument be when you start with a song? While the other possibility – that this is a comic dissection of how music works – is much better served by Geraldine Quinn’s show up the road.

For all the problems, there are some elegant comic touches here. He subverts the stand-up’s perennial ‘I know what you’re thinking…’ assertion with a cavalcade of unlikely notions, while some of the crowd interaction bears fruit. Vocalising his inner monologue to deconstruct the show is another nice flourish – though a similar idea is done with more vim, if imperfectly, by Terry Alderton.

The audience don’t quite know what to make of it, and who can blame them – it seems like they are being used as a sounding board for Lane’s half-formed ideas, and paying nearly $30 a head for the privilege.

In a callback to the cabaret comedians of yore, every so often the comic business is interrupted as Lane bursts into sincere song, accompanied by James Simpson on piano. He’s got a rich singing voice – though the higher notes elude him – as he cracks through classics such as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and For Once In My Life. Again, though, the response is muted as the audience don’t quite know what to make of it all. They have a very good point.

Review date: 15 Apr 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett