The Dark Room’s John Robertson takes his regular legendary stand-up show back to the Ballroom for an hour of chaos…
Robertson’s comedy is unpredictable and unhinged, much like the man himself. No two shows will be the same, since he tends to riff off the audience and improvise from there. But there’s one thing he always does: if an audience member comes in late, he insists on restarting the show, and he did this at least three times when I’m there! It’s a particularly crazy bit, partly because John’s Sudafed-ed to the gills and partly because his dramatic curtain flip gets it stuck to reveal the unglamorous ‘backstage’…
We all run with the madness. The flaky motion-sensitive light is just scared of ghosts; the broken microphone stand morphs into the Church Of The Descending Mic, as John slowly lowers it to the floor to oohs and aahs all round (‘now I know how L Ron Hubbard felt’); and a poor ginger gent in the front becomes a monosyllabic rival comedian that I’m apparently here to review. Nobody is safe- John can and will climb over seats to get to you, so be prepared!
Quite a lot of the crowd have seen Robertson before, but even the non-nerds will have a blast with his delightful tangents, which also includes an ‘electric’ ukulele set that’s more acoustic due to tech hitches. It’s an hour of genius, or one man’s breakdown, depending on your viewpoint.
John Robertson ought to have been snapped up by TV by now, so see him before he goes stratospheric.
*****
John Robertson: Excitable Boy! Is at Counting House from Aug 6-30 at 19:00