one4review | On 10, Aug 2013

There’s a point in Walsh’s show where he pokes fun at the comedians he’ll catch sight of as he scrolls through the Sky channels – Michael McIntyes, Kevin Bridges, you know the ones. Of course what he doesn’t mention is that his own face is also now one which can be found flickering past due to his seeming omnipresence on Comedy Central.  It’s clear that he’s on the verge of becoming a household name, but does he deserve the hype?

Having only seen him guest on other shows in previous years I’d been impressed with what I saw and had always wanted to catch his full-length show.  I’m glad I got in when I did because I’ve a feeling that tickets to his shows are going to be harder to come by – not simply because of his increased TV presence, but rather because he is very very good at what he does.

Having recently moved in on his own under the misguided assumption that doing so would make him proactive, Walsh has come to the realisation that he’s not naturally a person who Gets Things Done.  Distractions always seem to get in his way – the aforementioned scrolling through the Sky Guide, scrolling through the internet or simply getting waylaid by friends who seemingly want to help him drink himself into oblivion, or, at the very least, an embarrassing encounter with his local shopkeeper.  In fact, it’s all he can do to motivate himself to answer the door to the pizza delivery guy. Seann the slacker is very much at the heart of this show.  And yet Walsh never aims for a lazy laugh, instead he allows the humour to build and build and build some more throughout every self-deprecating insight into his lackadaisical lifestyle.  This is no easy feat but he manages to sustain the same level of audience enjoyment throughout the entire hour.

There’s also a very visible level of structuring that has gone into his show with various callbacks peppering the final moments, tying his set together nicely at the end.  It’s possible that the ending was slightly overlong, but I doubt there was anyone in this audience that thought too much Walsh was a bad thing.

Reviewed by Di

Pleasance Courtyard – Pleasance Cabaret

21.20