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Jon Richardson: Don’t Happy, Be Worry. - One4Review

4 stars

****

Richardson starts his show with an admission – just before he arrived on stage he experienced something of a backstage emergency.  Obviously, you start to imagine what could have panicked him so much.  A last-minute technical hitch? A worrysome bowel movement?  Horrible news from back home?  None of these even come close to hitting upon the reason for Richardson’s discomfort.   No.  Richardson had a stone stuck in the sole of his shoe and upon removing it still felt slightly unbalanced.  This was his emergency.

The reason I include this tale of woe in my review is because it gives you an insight into the mind of Jon Richardson; a simultaneously worrying and wonderous place.  It’s truly a delight to sit and listen to him releasing torrents of his pent up angst for an hour as he touches upon why he can’t support morally bankrupt footballers, or why the lyrics to ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ don’t really provide you with any useful advice for life, or why people end up having children, or why he ended up spitting at a traffic light on the North Circular in the middle of the night.  It’s odd that the audience managed to derive so much pleasure from one man’s damaged psyche, but the simple fact is that Richardson manages to craft his dark thoughts into a highly amusing 60 minutes.

Richardson himself states that he thought he would become mellower as time went on but instead he finds himself getting angrier and angrier.  Hopefully he can treat these nightly shows as therapy sessions, otherwise I’d hate to think how else he would channel all this negative energy.  Shades of Michael Douglas in ‘Falling Down’ echo worryingly through my mind.  However, for the moment at least, Richardson’s ire makes for a very entertaining Fringe ticket.

Reviewed by Di

Venue: Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance Above

19.40

Comments

  1. I loved this show, but then again, I love Jon Richardson! I really want to see ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ – the title alone makes me smile every time I see it!

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