I cut back on seeing stand-up comedians some while back on the basis that they had all begun to sound the same. Gary McNair certainly does not fit into that category, although, as “play texts” were being sold at the end of his performance, it may be fair to deduce that he is no more a stand-up comedian than Donald Robertson, the badly bullied schoolboy that he bumps into regularly on a bus. Let’s just say that McNair presents the piece as if it were a stand-up routine and then takes it to all sorts of fascinating places. It would be unfair to divulge too much of the story that unfolds, but the narrative is always inventive and it leads to a very clever deconstruction of the natures of comedy, bullying and their inter-dependence. McNair, also the writer, is an accomplished comedy performer, who holds the audience in the palm of his hand for the entire show and, at the end, we are treated to a really wonderful punchline, which fully endorses everything that has preceded it. So, if Gary McNair is not a stand-up comedian, then, for sure, he is a consummate storyteller.
Performance date: 13 August 2014
The Beast's Pen 