Audience left out of extended injoke
FANS of Robbie Nicol’s previous work as White Man Behind a Desk
will be left perplexed by his new stage show.
Nicol is known for his satirical videos and his latest creation, WMBADX: Idea Worth Spreading,
is billed as a show about him giving up on satire because it doesn’t change anything.
As the title suggests, the show is loosely based around a lampoon of TED talks but judging by the lukewarm audience reaction in the packed Hutton Theatre on Thursday night, it largely fell flat.
Opening with one of Nicol’s YouTube videos about the Auckland housing crisis, it seemed not much had changed, but the show soon moved to what could generously be called ‘‘outsider’’ comedy.
Though there were funny moments throughout the hourlong performance, it mostly felt as if the audience were watching one big injoke they weren’t in on.
Despite Nicol’s charismatic persona, even his strong onstage presence and audience rapport couldn’t bring life to the stale writing.
At one stage the whole room was left in darkness while Nicol’s sidekick loudly described pictures off a computer screen — which became excruciatingly painful very quickly.
Much of the show was dedicated to a storyline involving a troll who became increasingly violent in his threats against Nicol.
But a fart joke ending made it clear the show was supposed to be subversion of comedy. However, it lacked the depth, intelligence and possibly attention span to achieve anything close to this goal.
Absurdity can be a vital part of comedy but when it has no depth or meaning it falls flat and becomes lifeless, no matter who is delivering the punchlines.
At times the show briefly touches timely subjects, such as the worth of satire in today’s political climate and the increasing problem of internet trolls, but ultimately fails to deliver any meaningful critique.