Ryan Withers: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Laughing Horse @ Jekyll & Hyde

Ryan Withers has been something of a beneath-the-radar magnet for lovers of weird – if rough-and-ready – comedy at the Melbourne Comedy Festival over the past couple of years. And in his Edinburgh debut he’s upped the weirdness even more, even though it’s not gelling into anything consistently funny, despite some promising flashes.

Well I say ‘his’ Edinburgh debut. As you can tell, he’s performing this a woman. Kind of. It’s not broad drag, or even a character who just happens to be female. If he’s a genuine transvestite, he’s not comfortable enough with it like Eddie Izzard or Andrew O’Neill, if he’s not, it’s a strange decision to have made.

But then this show is built upon strange decisions – including the odd spelling of showe –  some of which pay off, more of which come close, but don’t land. ‘This is what happens when a train wreck has sex with a car crash’ we’re told from the get-go, lowering our expectations.

In a series of set pieces, Withers singers a flat English pseudo-translation of Je Ne Regrette Rien, tries to take an audience member out on a date to the prom, and even demonstrates a surprising gift for mimicry by playing out a potential Hollywood scene with all manner of famous actors. But (s)he’s not a (wo)man to know when to stop, so drives that sketch into the ground with too many voices. An oddball Q&A session equally is too long and too light on laughs.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a young comic just arsing around, but then he’ll deliver a decent gag, a twisty turn of phrase, or an unforgettably odd image – never more so than the batshit crazy finale when he tells of the gory scenes that happened in this very room 100 years ago to the day…

In a year where debate rages over whether the spirit of the fringe has been crushed by corporatisation, a young man in a dress and too much eyeliner vigorously re-enacting a blood-soaked ghost story to a tiny audience beneath a pub proves the alternative isn’t going to go quietly.

This One Woman Showe might not work, but it fails valiantly – by trying to be different – rather than ingloriously by mundanity. Withers may yet prove to be a surreal comedy genius, in which case you might want to say you saw him here first, or he might slink into obscurity and/or madness. But you’ll still have a story to tell after seeing this bonkers show(e).