Brendon Green – The Basement Studio

Brendon Green is the final Billy T nominee on our review list, and the standard has been high so no pressure Brendon.

His show Some More Mr Nice Guy is all about our perception of Brendon. A large canvas background reads ‘We are who we pretend to be, so we should be careful what we pretend to be’ (Kurt Vonnegut). On the floor below are lots of smaller canvases, featuring sentences written by friends describing Brendon as an all round nice guy. He’s a nice guy, right? He says it’s all an act, so he spends his hour show trying to convince us otherwise through a series of confessions and bad habits. He even wants us to judge him.

The show begins in a surprisingly somber way with a song about our mortality, followed by some energetic expressive dance. His stand-up begins a little nervously (or maybe he is just out of breath from all the dancing), but he soon relaxes into it.

If I had a criticism of the show it is that it ticks too many boxes; music, dance, song, visuals and audience interaction at the end. None of this is bad, he actually brings it all together well, but it may be easier for Brendon to concentrate on less activity.

His material is clever and, if he is telling the truth, he is letting some serious skeletons out the closet here. Green is a very smart man, and I think we will see his confidence and material go from strength to strength in coming years. I especially enjoyed how he made the audience gasp, belly laugh and have awkward silences. This shows a lot of confidence, as many less experienced comedians can be guilty of not allowing their jokes the time to sink in.

I came out of his show having had a right good laugh, and admired his moxy to make himself a target for the giggles.

Brendon is putting it out there that he is a dead ringer for Michael Fassbender, or a poor mans Ewan McGregor, but I think we can be happy with Brendon Green as he’s not a bad guy really. Turns out he’s a pretty good comedian too.

You can see Brendon Green give Some More Mr Nice Guy at The Basement Studio until 17 May.

Reviewed by Ingrid Grenar

4 small stars

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