PERFORMANCE & COMEDY

Rondo Theatre, Bath (Thur 20 Oct)

COMEDY Do you remember when you were at school? ’Course you do. Do you remember what it was like when the teachers tried to crack jokes? They thought they were really funny, didn’t they? And were they?

Kevin Precious (pictured) is a former RE teacher, an experience he clearly feels the need to re-live and is looking to make a comedy career out of. Good luck with that. He starts the evening with a lengthy interrogation of the audience about what they do for a living (why do comedians think this is in any way interesting?), mainly to find out how many of us are teachers (a few) and discovers that some of us are also accountants. Comedy gold, we think not.

His actual act, when it comes, is a series of reminiscences about life in the classroom and the staffroom. Not in itself an inappropriate area for comedy, but this is very much a show by a teacher for other teachers, and the gags are mostly about the behaviour of kids (they are so immature, aren’t they?) and in-jokes about the hilarious tricks teachers get up to in order to avoid actually teaching them. Though he does get the odd laugh of recognition – after all, we’ve all been to school – it’s all a tad predictable and clichéd, the delivery often a bit laboured, not helped by the fact that, like a teacher, he has brought a crib sheet to get him through the set.

The brief set from Jared Hardy, the support act, is a bit more sparky. This young (and even younger-looking) comic from Taunton is much faster on his feet. His self-effacing routines about his experiences of being mistaken for a child are well-timed and confident, and his banter with the audience fizzes with gags.

He probably won’t be looking for a career in teaching. (John Christopher Wood)

Copyright John Christopher Wood 2011