one4review | On 28, Aug 2016

I’ve never seen a show derailed so badly and have it turn out to be a thing of beauty and hilarity. Poor Matt had it all in the show I saw: misunderstanders, latecomers (forty-five minutes into a sixty minute show!), strange noises, chatty people… but Mr Price is so lovely, and so good with his insults, that even if it wasn’t the show we were supposed to see, it was really good fun nonetheless.

Ostensibly, the show is about the fact that Mr Price is a poltroon, a coward, and the stories he tells (tried to tell) are about things that have happened to him as a result of his tendency to please people and avoid confrontation. There’s a nice mix of styles here, with some traditional short ‘jokes’, and stories (with excellent payoffs) of varying lengths. I imagine that it probably has a nice narrative arc (because Mr Price is good at telling a story), but I can’t be sure (because of some audience).

Mr Price is reflective and thoughtful with his material, so even some of the rather darker and liminal stuff, which might have turned an audience off, came off well. A reliably enjoyable performer.

Laughing Horse @ Caberet Voltaire

Reviewed by Laura