When I was
at school we had a headmaster who delivered his assemblies by staring at the
back wall of the room. For some reason he could not look at us in the eye.
Because of that, he lost what little respect we may have had for him and he
became a bigger figure of ridicule.
That’s who Tony Hendriks reminded
me of and this inability to directly address the audience was a major failing in
my opinion. How can you successfully do any form of public speaking when you
focus your oration, literally, over the heads of your public?
Hendriks is a white Jamaican so you can immediately see the scope for a
plethora of observations and jokes but his primary intent seemed to be to
educate us and then drop in some witticisms as he went along. So Hendriks
delivered a lengthy monologue on the history of
Jamaica, the ethnic
evolution of her populace and many of the problems he has encountered being
out-of-stereotype.
There were some funny moments and
some clever observations but when you had to sit through a lecture before each
punchline it kind of lost any impact it might have carried. I feared that we
might have had to sit a test after.
Hendriks was the headline act
and, in my opinion, should have been funnier. Or at least, certainly actually
told more jokes, I could be more forgiving if they had fallen flat, at least it
would have shown he tried.
He was an absolute anticlimax to
an otherwise high energy, extremely entertaining night.
Venue: Capitol
Arts Centre – Horsham
Date Of Show:
17th October
2004
Place on bill:
Headline
