Looking like – in his words – the deputy manager of a charity shop – Ray O’Leary shuffles out to face a sold out Norwich Playhouse crowd.
Routinely described as deadpan, his material focuses on the supposed gap between his countenance and his wit but it’s a false premise. There’s no reason why an “upturned mop” – another self-depreciating reference – shouldn’t be funny.
And O’Leary is. As well as playing on fan’s assumptions of him, his material ranges widely from advocating the acting profession employ a type of jury duty, to the casualness of care home security (“I once couldn’t get my coat back because I lost a bit of paper, but they didn’t ask any questions to get my nan.”)
The show wraps up with an extended call back to several jokes in the show, aided by two audience members taking part in a script reading. It’s a cleverly constructed piece, aided in this case by some erudite audience members.
The risk for O’Leary is that the schtick fades. Much of his material already features quite dated cultural references – including Tom Hanks in Toy Story, Borat, and Seinfeld – though his 10-year career in his native New Zealand suggests that is maybe more a cynical matching with his audience’s frame of reference than a lack of invention.
Support is provided by Eli Matthewson, a total contrast in apparent confidence and bonhomie. His material felt more like a set cut short too soon than a warm up. He joked that he’d travelled from New Zealand to the UK for a better seat for the end of the world – he should soon have audiences coming just to see him.
- Ray O’Leary is touring nationally.
