Gabriel Bisset-Smith Tells the Most Original and Funny Joke in the Universe! | Gig review by Steve Bennett at Soho Theatre

Gabriel Bisset-Smith Tells the Most Original and Funny Joke in the Universe!

Note: This review is from 2016

Gig review by Steve Bennett at Soho Theatre

Well, of course he's got a title he couldn't possibly live up to – but that's the very point of Gabriel Bisset-Smith's creative show.

The high-concept hour is riddled with contradiction, acknowledging that everything has been done before, trying to be unique anyway, then failing to be. Likewise, the hour’s construction is as robust as a supertanker, but it takes a while to realise that, beneath an execution that’s chaotic and messy.There’s a strong meta- element to it all, but Bisset-Smith doesn’t flaunt his cleverness, and a surrealism that he doesn’t labour.

He has a point about originality which would be a spoiler to share, but needless to say it allows enough latitude to let him have the brash swaggering entrance like Nick Helm or the stupid audience participation of... well, take your pick.

After promising the world, BS - and how apt an abbreviation of his double-barrels— took the show in an unexpected direction as he talks about the background to what inspired him to want to come up with the Earth-shattering joke in the first place.

It's a many-tentacled narrative that takes in his West Indian mother, the death of a relative (again, a much-mined trope when it comes to adding drama to Edinburgh shows), the blandness of YouTube hits and the genius, or otherwise, of Kanye West, all in the service of a tale of feeling under appreciated and wanting to make a distinctive mark on the world.

These all inspire a tentatively linked series of sketches, often making use of audience patsies ... and to strong effect. He's good at binding the crowd into a singing or applauding as a whole, and getting individuals to shine through their embarrassment. It feels like fun, even when it's strange, and you often find yourself wanting to know 'where's he going with this?’, which keeps the show barrelling along.

All makes sense in the conclusion - well ’sense’ might be too strong a word, but it does neatly prove just how much the show has been reverse engineered for a neat ending. Even if it's not the MOST original and funny joke in the universe, Bisset-Smith has certainly managed to do something new and amusing enough to get himself noticed.

Review date: 1 May 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Soho Theatre

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