LIVE AND LET LAUGH. Alan Committee’s 25th Solo Stand Up Show. Theatre on the Bay
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
On a perfect, still, summer solstice we gathered at the place where the sun meets the sea and waited, in our fancy clothes, for load shedding to end so Alan could get on with the show. And every moment of Live and Let Laugh was worth the wait, exactly what we needed, in the way we needed it. So much so, I have woken up with sore rib and tummy muscles this morning, just from laughing non-stop for almost two hours.
Alan’s brand of comedy feels like this. It feels like he has a perfectly worked out entrance and exit, a flip chart and a Johan van der Walt, and a theme (Bond filims) all for in case he isn’t completely inspired by his audience, which doesn’t seem possible. His show is full, and so, so funny. Every single beat of it.
In fact, aside from making fun (in a delightful way) of many members of the audience, who provide him with launchpads into the totally hilarious just by having boring jobs like ‘corporate investigator’, or taking the piss out of a woman who needed to leave to do exactly that, Alan flits like a butterfly on speed from subject to subject, from Bond actor to aging, from funny fact to load shedding, to self-deprecation to up selling himself, and then everything else in between. And that is just his subject matter. He has a manic, marvellous, magical brain, improvising, tying things up, bringing them back, leaving them for later, and flogging them, but never to death.
Fast, glib and delightful delivery
I am even more charmed by his stand-up persona. I love his slightly whiny, slightly conservative, slightly (but never very) rude, fast, glib, and delightful delivery. I could not stop laughing. I did a few embarrassing thigh slaps, but not as badly as the woman in front of me who laughed so hard, she spilled her drink in her lap. And provided endless fodder for Alan.
It is an amazing gift, this laughter thing. Alan made reference to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, where he played George on the same stage, but this time laughter and lightness was the treat. The reference reminded me of what we’ve been through. A lot. A lot lot. The most. So, what could be more lovely than returning full force to Alan’s end of year ritual, his solo Christmas show?
The only teeny thing I didn’t enjoy was the slightly awkward made-up sign language. I would lose that. But hey, if that was literally the only thing, there is 99% more that I loved. Live and Let Laugh is on until 25 January. You really, really should go.
What: Alan Commitee: Live and Let Laugh
Where and when: Theatre on the Bay until 25 January 2023
Book: Computicket
WS
