Pulp Boy review - (SkinnyFest 2)

Terry Saunders hates Jenson Button – but then again, don't we all? Despite his recent success on the track, Button's annoyingly smug demeanour and his pithy new beard (so outshone by Terry's own) cannot make up for his past losses, or the fact that Formula 1 exists at all. Unfortunately for Terry, this completely worthy subject of ridicule eclipses the first half-hour of his show, which is supposed to be about Pulp. For all fans of the big JC, like myself, this premise can stimulate only excitement, with the glamour of past, now failed, adolescent dreams returning with a blurry vengeance.

Sadly, only half of Saunders' show revolves around his Pulp story, which is about the trials and tribulations of 15-year-old Nathan, who furiously refuses to speak to his mother in anything but Pulp lyrics. While this material is more than mildly amusing, Saunders takes far too long to settle into the general swing of things. His timing too needs work, and he leaves us with a less than flawless ending. While the story he tells is genuinely heart-warming, it perhaps requires a more Kitson-like delivery. Still, as a performer, it seems unlikely that anyone but Saunders could capture the simultaneously defeated and elated spirit of the band that couldn't help but define an era, even though he doesn't quite achieve this feat himself.