Gadd, Kirk and Winning: Well, This is Awkward

Article by Sarah Stewart | 13 Aug 2011

 

Oh boys. How likeable you all are. How much your rain-soaked lunchtime audience wanted to laugh. But no matter how personable these three are, there’s no making up for the fact that their material is shaky, to say the least.

Of all the three, James Kirk (winner of last year's So You Think You're Funny) is the easiest to watch – he has a delightfully weird stage persona and great timing. However, all the great timing in the world doesn’t make up for his material, which feels uncomfortably under-prepared. Richard Gadd has a similarly endearing on-stage persona, all faux-twitchiness and high-pitched laughter, but again, he leans too heavily on gags about not having enough material. He has moments of real funniness, but his comedy is too self-referential to work for this subdued lunchtime crowd. Similar problems spoil Matthew Winning's segment. He’s another energetic, likeable performer, but his rapid-fire delivery can’t compensate for the lack of laughs; some of his punchlines barely raise a smirk.

The show is disappointing because you can almost feel the audience willing these young comedians to succeed. What does work is the bizarre-but-hilarious anti-Christmas rap that the three close their set with, which is properly, properly funny. If only they’d developed their shambolic rap personalities into a single act, they might well have had a winner on their hands.

 

Gadd, Kirk & Winning: Well, This Is Awkward, Bannerman's, until 16 August, 13:45, Free