one4review | On 21, Aug 2025

Tim Reeves is attempting a thing here, and it’s the performance and delivery far more than the material or content that prevents him achieving his aims. There was a small reset about a quarter of the way in, where Reeves ostensibly breaks character to share some inside knowledge. Post-reset, there is stuff with potential: about family cats and rich people with ferrets among other things. It’s insidiously surreal, starting out recognisable and sliding imperceptibly into an alternate universe where almost everything is the same but the clocks have melted. For those as like this sort of thing, so far so good.

Pre-reset, Reeves sets himself up as an anti-comedian, with material that isn’t great and without any acknowledgement of that fact. Spending a quarter of a show with the audience believing that it’s actually awful, and not that this is the point of the show, part of the conceit, sets up a very difficult turnaround, and Reeves’ delivery doesn’t aid him. There’s no hint of a knowing smile, no however-oblique acknowledgment that this is awkward and he knows it and is having fun with it (also a valid thing, for those as partake). It’s fine – and even fun – to play with audiences, but they need to be, even in a tiny way, complicit in the fun. Otherwise it’s only fun for the performer, and by Reeves own espoused testimony, perhaps not even then.  

Add to this poor mic discipline and crowd-work that seemed to throw him off course every one of the numerous times he engaged in it, and the sum is a show apparently specifically designed to repel the audience, like an opposing magnet. It’s to be hoped this is deliberate, like the shirt. However, Reeves tells us many times that he doesn’t want to be on stage, and he isn’t enjoying himself. For this small, mid-week crowd, he was a bit too believable.

Reviewed by Laura
22:20
Underbelly George Square (Wee Coo)
Until 24th.