Real Life with Ben Kewin @ Gorilla, Manchester, 6 Mar

Playing the kind of overblown, hyper-confident (all be it severely misplaced) pompous buffoons you would associate with American character comics like Will Ferrell or Zach Galifianakis, Ben Kewin’s dissection of ‘real life’ is a masterful display of tight writing, performance and a great deal of lunacy.

Real Life takes the form of a series of short plays, each more ludicrous than the last, with Kewin, in his tight fitting green turtle neck and Farah slacks, playing every role, transforming effortlessly between characters by either wearing sunglasses or not wearing sunglasses and stomping across the stage to deliver monosyllabic responses.

From a depressed Samaritans call centre worker to a fantasy warrior known only as Wandandsword (for he carries both wand and sword), Real Life explores what it is to be human – if that human is a self-centred, failed writer using the stage to act out his own dellusions and grand declarations, which ends in the audience joining a cult. Props, blocking, misleading sound effects and a great deal of imagination are all incorporated to create a glimpse into the mind of a mad manchild.

The only criticism is that it didn’t go on long enough: a 45 minute runtime seems too short a period to spend in the company of Kewin. There’s talk of a tour later in the year and after tonight’s performance you can bet we’ll be in the front row.