Jack Jerome: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Just The Tonic at The Tron

While I wasn't the most vociferous advocate of Will Adamsdale's 2004 Perrier-winning show Jackson 's Way, it has made the job of anyone wanting to riff on the subject of motivational speakers that much more difficult. Call it The Office  factor, if you will, though it was Adamsdale's acting ability that sets his work apart from imitators as much as the content of his show.

Jerome Jack is the creation of character comic Will Coope, whose mission it is to make us accept that just living is half the battle.

On this journey today’s small audience learn how to have a date facilitated by flash cards and how to defend themselves from an attacker, as long as they are as easy to disarm as a small child.

The flaws in these methods are, unfortunately, as obvious as the jokes and things that should be quick asides are lingered over as if to say: ‘This way to the punchline please’. One such glaring example is his fetishising of George Michael, in a sequence about male confidence and potency, he later he quips that he can’t think of a male celebrity called George. This is only a gag if it is delivered at high speed and with great abandon.

Pacing is a problem for Cooper and sometimes his delivery feels like a theatrical monologue, or even a serious poetry recital. Not the look he was going for, I’m sure, especially when you are trying to carry off a section called Happy Talk with the appropriate musical backing – the more crazed you are the better this looks.

Elements of this uneven hour suggest that Will Cooper can come up with something stronger, and that he has a guiding sense of structure. Jack Jerome has various elements of a back story, the Indian guru he worked with but who is reluctant to help him out now and, crucially Jenny, the girl who broke his heart and has clearly affected the direction of his chosen career.

As much bemusing as it is amusing, Will Cooper’s debut Fringe outing shows some promise. His character starts the show physically loosening up, a good metaphor for what the young performer needs to do mentally for his next project.