I have to be honest, I was unsure
as to how this show was going to work.
The TV series, while hilarious in parts, was often hit and miss and
occasionally fell flat when Brydon wasn’t given the material he needed to work
his magic. It also, in my humble
opinion suffered from irritating C list celebrities who often seemed determined
not to play Brydon’s game. I went
to the show then expecting a few laughs but nothing spectacular.
How wrong I was.
Brydon was infinitely better on
stage than on television and all the constraints that go with it. With his
Keith Barrett persona he really commanded the stage and the audience's
attention. The show was in two
halves. The first an in depth look
at reasons why relationships break up (complete with slides and
statistics!). Some of the material
was really quite risky, something I wouldn’t have suspected after seeing the TV
series but Brydon’s creation Keith Barrett is so hopeless yet likable that he
can talk about topics such as suicide and divorce and offer hilarious insights
into otherwise depressing subjects.
The second half followed the
format of his television series,
with Brydon interviewing a couple from the audience about their most
intimate marital detail then opening up the floor for the audience to ask the
terrified couple questions. This
was a section that you could see going easily wrong if the couple got too
embarrassed but this thankfully this didn’t happen even when Brydon left them
alone under the spot lights while he dashed from the stage.
Both halves were packed with
laughs and Brydon’s banter with the audience was spot on, something which can
often be tricky in larger venues.
So good in fact that it was questionable as to whether there were one or
two plants amongst the audience members.
I personally think that if there were then their participation was kept
to a minimum and as this particular show was being recorded for DVD it can be
forgiven.
On the whole this was a brilliant
show, a good mix of straight stand up, audience banter and participation and
even one or two attempts at a song thrown in for good measure.
Cardiff Millennium Centre,
Cardiff
