Gordon Southern – The Kerfuffle
Cavern Club, Wellington, 1 May
To be honest I’d rather write about shows I love. And with Gordon Southern’s performance A brief History of History last year, galloping us through the world’s complete history in one hour, I hoped I was in for a real treat again.
But unfortunately this isn’t one of these occasions.
Don’t understand me wrong, it wasn’t god-awful, it just wasn’t that great.
The main point being that his current show, The Kerfuffle is missing a bit of a framework that holds the evening together.
But it was his first night in New Zealand, and it may take a moment to completely get into the vibe.
And there were good parts too.
Southern is a charming, he has his way with the crowd and a keen eye for history and national traits.
He went through some genuine English issues, the Queens jubilee, his ailing father, giraffes (of course), his Australian wife and a performance for Captain Wales (a super hero, you think)
He again brought along his ancient mixing machine loaded with an array of jingles, that are used pointedly to give his punch lines a bit more punch.
There was a lot of impro, there were some hearty laughs from Southern and the audience and he brought back his awkward rapping skills (Call me a prude, but I am still not really into rapped sonnets about STDs)
To be fair the show was described as “a joyfully silly and quick-witted shambles,” and that’s pretty much how I would have summed it up too.
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