Comedian Dies in the Middle of Joke devised by Ross Sutherland

Comedian Dies in the Middle of Joke devised by Ross Sutherland

15 August, 2012
by: Crystal Bennes

Crystal Bennes reviews a performance that hinges on its audience

There are two kinds of "interactive" theatre: the kind that's just intimate theatre and the kind that's actually interactive. Ross Sutherland's Comedian Dies in the Middle of a Joke most definitely falls into the latter camp.

The comedian of the title is Joe Pooley, an utterly banal stand-up whose set is so bad, it inspires an untimely end and he's murdered onstage in a north London comedy club in November, 1983. The show replays the last five minutes of Pooley's life over and over (seven times in all), with a different audience member playing the part of the comedian just before his death.

Everyone else in the audience has a part too - and a costume - so no-one feels left out. In Sutherland's show the audience is the show and the audience simultaneously, which is a pretty bloody big risk for any performer to take. The comedian gets an auto-cue and the audience get a script, a script which is more like individual prompts. The ballsy element lies not in the fact that the central performance - the comedian - is given by different members of the audience, but that, because each performance takes on the personality of its audience, the show lives or dies not by the strength of this central performance, but by the strength of its supporting cast, its audience.

I have a feeling, though, despite some truly hilarious moments and genuine flashes of brilliance from the audience, that the Tuesday-afternoon crowd weren't exactly giving it their all and so the show felt just a little bit flat. But with the right crowd, this show could be one of the best things you'll see at the Fringe, certainly one of the most imaginative. 




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Crystal Bennes