Yianni
seemed to face a couple of problems with his set. Firstly he didn’t really
make an impact and was gradually loosing out to a rising tide of background
noise. Second, was his opening material; it was high on discourse and low on
punchlines. By that, I mean that he just seemed to talk about a subject but
never followed through with any specific
jokes.
As an Australian Cypriot in the
UK
he should
have a plethora of culture clash issues he could deal with but gave a lengthy
delivery on his ‘strange’ name and the reason why he is billed only by a
monogram. Then came another over-explained set-up concerning his grandmother
which used up any punchline long before he had finished the story.
His only saving grace was when he
switched into an extrovert impression of Gollum which grabbed the audience’s
attention and raised some long sought after laughs. But perhaps the laughs came
more from the irony of his material than the jokes themselves.
It’s hard to tell whether
Yianni was a good act on a bad day or just not very good. Perhaps if he had more
stage presence and got himself a stage name then this would be an entirely
different review. I would hope for much better if our paths were to cross
again.
Venue:
Funny.co.uk Comedy Club: Evolution – Haywards Heath
Date Of Show:
September 26th 2004,
Place on bill: 2nd
