SkinnyFest 3 - Dwight Slade
Surely deserving of a personal file at the FBI
| 14 Aug 2006
Dwight Slade is American, and he is sorry. In a bitter display in which he unveils many, many suppressed homicidal tendencies, jet-setter Slade expertly rants about his home nation and the effort it takes to try to find some soul in a soulless culture. He doesn't find it in his in-flight magazine, but the characters of an adjacent couple on a recent flight hilariously epitomise the 'American problem'. One feels so powerless in an inefficient democracy that he gets in a fret about the window-blind, the other blocks reality out by reading books about magic (Harry Potter also gets a mention).
It's not all about America. Slade's other main theme is people he'd like to batter with a pool cue. He calls this "justice - Grand Theft Auto-style", and it righteously includes those people who verbally describe the grammar in their sentences. But it's the unstoppable swelling of dehumanising consumerism that really gets to Dwight Slade, that makes him want to do violent things to imbecilic airline passengers. Or at least, that's his excuse. Slade really is on the edge, perhaps a little unstable, and surely deserving of a personal file at the FBI. He's also very, very funny - period.
It's not all about America. Slade's other main theme is people he'd like to batter with a pool cue. He calls this "justice - Grand Theft Auto-style", and it righteously includes those people who verbally describe the grammar in their sentences. But it's the unstoppable swelling of dehumanising consumerism that really gets to Dwight Slade, that makes him want to do violent things to imbecilic airline passengers. Or at least, that's his excuse. Slade really is on the edge, perhaps a little unstable, and surely deserving of a personal file at the FBI. He's also very, very funny - period.
Dwight Slade, Pleasance Dome, Until August 27, 20:40, £11/£9.50 (£10/£8.50).