A roasting summer evening creates a ‘makeshift’ (one of his favourite words and his funniest moment) sauna in the Gilded Balloon’s Billiard Room where Alun Cochrane ably melds his passion for lexical favorites with some of the activities of his past. Despite the inherent risk of falling into an elitist trap, it all turns out to be about an amiable geek, not a smarmy intellectual.
Cochrane is an immediate stage presence – a confident, compelling storyteller – and possesses the true, vital talent of comedy timing. If you’re easily amused, you’ll be highly amused. Alas, there’s a shortage of memorable material and if you yearn for subtler, creative observations you might want to seek out other [cooler] climes.
The crowd (small, but certainly up for it) are invited to share their own favourite words and respective meanings. It doesn’t take off until the puerile stuff makes it’s inevitable appearance, though the fact that the mere naming of certain body parts in their own right is enough to cause mass belly-laughter arouses disappointment – admittedly, in the crowd and not the performer.
It seems elitist or snobbish to pick holes in a performance that seems to genuinely delight an audience but there’s a paucity of ‘take-home’ comedy moments. If I can’t mark out of ten, a purist’s loathing for half-stars means I’m rounding down. Recommended but not essential.
3/5
Daniel Kirby
