Evin Donohoe: International Homewrecker at the Camden Head

Evin Donohoe: International Homewrecker at the Camden Head

18 August, 2011
by: Katuschka

Kate Weir thoroughly enjoys this jetsetting stand-up's lively solo hour.

Surely there is a scrawled childhood manifesto, displaying the grammatical deftness, mental acuity and naive cheer of a lollipop having an orgasm, tucked far back in everyone’s drawer. Mine was a scrawled list of things I hoped to achieve by the time I was 25 and it was disheartening to realise I am not married to Joshua Jackson and I have not completed a world tour with my then pop group Tropical Stardust. But at least it would appear that my ambitions were a tad loftier than comedian Evin Donohoe, who unravels a list of raison d’etres written at school, which includes such affirmations as ‘I am Evin’ and ‘I eat cheese well’. 

With those bombshells thrown to the universe, Donohoe launches into his show ‘Homewrecker’ at The Camden Head, an energetic look at life, travel, culture clashes, religion and the most disturbing Harry Potter fan fiction this side of legal. Evin’s home wrecking credentials veer from the literal to the even more literal as he breathlessly moves through countries and timelines, stopping along the way to remark on the shared absurdities of life.

Being an engaging mix of Irish, American and Australian, with the overall voice of a ‘softly spoken Canadian’; enables Donohoe to change characters with the frantic dexterity of a multiple personality disorder. One moment he’s an Antipodean ribbing us Brits about our cricket aptitude and writing paeans to Sainsbury’s lauding their low prices; the next he’s an intensely English Tyrannosaurus Rex trying to overcome the tiny arm to mouth ratio to drink a cup of tea. 

Donohoe is a lively and enthusiastic performer who clearly enjoys himself, unafraid to veer off script if a joke has legs. Even a spilt beer is played for laughs (perhaps his beer drinking skills are less finely tuned than his cheese eating). It’s telling that nobody seems to be itching in their seat when he runs over time; especially on a Monday night show. His charm and self-deprecation, laced through with enough braggadocio and snark to eke laughs out of even the sappiest moments, prove to be a winning combination. My only request would be for more audience interaction; then again, recollecting the fate he has in store for Dumbledore, perhaps it’s best that he keeps at least five feet away from audience members and elderly wizards at all times; but this is a small qualm and Donohoe, true to his titular moniker, brought down the house.

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