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Dave Gorman review – PowerPoint gags are funny but all too familiar Dave Gorman review – PowerPoint gags are funny but all too familiar
(35 minutes later)
Not many comics get cheered for their graphs. That’s Dave Gorman’s niche: the key moment in any routine is when the ranting stops and he illustrates his complaint on an X and Y axis. Several examples tonight are very funny: tracking the illogic, say, of kids’ song If You’re Happy and You Know It. But if you mapped excitement against familiarity, you’d get a downward slope. And this show feels less like a special live event than another episode of Gorman’s TV series, in which his overblown ire – though amusing – seldom rescues the material from inconsequentiality.Not many comics get cheered for their graphs. That’s Dave Gorman’s niche: the key moment in any routine is when the ranting stops and he illustrates his complaint on an X and Y axis. Several examples tonight are very funny: tracking the illogic, say, of kids’ song If You’re Happy and You Know It. But if you mapped excitement against familiarity, you’d get a downward slope. And this show feels less like a special live event than another episode of Gorman’s TV series, in which his overblown ire – though amusing – seldom rescues the material from inconsequentiality.
There’s nothing unexpected about the format: a comical PowerPoint seminar on (mainly) the media and modern narcissism. You couldn’t ask for a brisker guide to this stuff, nor one more adept at zeroing in on inanity. Think observational comedy with a tech spin, shining a cathartic light on the odd encounters we all have with new media. Why does a Google search for “fox” reveal so few images of foxes? Why do our smartphones think they know better than we do whether a photo is landscape or portrait?There’s nothing unexpected about the format: a comical PowerPoint seminar on (mainly) the media and modern narcissism. You couldn’t ask for a brisker guide to this stuff, nor one more adept at zeroing in on inanity. Think observational comedy with a tech spin, shining a cathartic light on the odd encounters we all have with new media. Why does a Google search for “fox” reveal so few images of foxes? Why do our smartphones think they know better than we do whether a photo is landscape or portrait?
But in contrast with Gorman’s best material, little that’s surprising or significant is revealed. He pokes fun at his mum’s inadequacy on social media, and shares more trademark “found poems” cribbed from semi-literate online comments – which are funny in a way we’ve seen many times before, from Gorman and others.But in contrast with Gorman’s best material, little that’s surprising or significant is revealed. He pokes fun at his mum’s inadequacy on social media, and shares more trademark “found poems” cribbed from semi-literate online comments – which are funny in a way we’ve seen many times before, from Gorman and others.
One or two sequences are overegged. The Daily Mail’s failure to understand the word “photobomb” is worth a joke, but not a whole fulminating routine. The show’s closer, involving contributions Gorman solicits to a fake telly show, seems unsure of its point, save that some people out there are eager to be on TV. It raises a few laughs, but there’s too little here to get excited about.One or two sequences are overegged. The Daily Mail’s failure to understand the word “photobomb” is worth a joke, but not a whole fulminating routine. The show’s closer, involving contributions Gorman solicits to a fake telly show, seems unsure of its point, save that some people out there are eager to be on TV. It raises a few laughs, but there’s too little here to get excited about.
• Wednesday, Cheltenham Everyman. Then touring.• Wednesday, Cheltenham Everyman. Then touring.
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