PERFORMANCE & COMEDY

Rondo Theatre, Bath (Fri 20 Jan)

COMEDY This is a show that does exactly what it says on the tin. Brett’s dad, it seems, had a midlife crisis - but instead of buying a Harley Davidson, he bought a strip club in Marbella. The show is an account of Brett’s experiences there as a young and impressionable man. And it's a tale brilliantly told.

Goldstein is, as he tells us, an actor and a stand-up comic, at both of which he’s seriously talented. His engaging, teasing manner gives him instant rapport with his audience and he dispenses with all the usual tired routines of getting at individual audience members (well, almost all) and gets on with the story.

And a hell of a story it is, with a cast of strippers, Irish mafia, feuding in-laws, drugs, sex and tackiness - but about people, not stereotypes. The joy of it is entirely in Goldstein's performance: impeccable comic timing, wickedly accurate characterisations, carefully but unobtrusively plotted storylines, and constant wrong-footing of audience expectations, right to his ironic finish where he subverts the usual fawning ‘you’ve been a marvellous audience’ comedy cliché beautifully.

Whether this is a true story hardly matters: it’s a story with truths in it, and Goldstein has the rare knack of knowing how to be thought-provoking without being preachy, and exactly how long you can be serious for in a comedy show. This is altogether a humane, intelligent and deeply satisfying piece of performing art. And cryingly funny. (John Christopher Wood)

Copyright John Christopher Wood 2012