Review by Steve Bennett

Review

That Canadian Guy is the stage name of Glen Foster, which he apparently chose after hearing audiences saying, 'that Canadian guy was pretty good', or similar sentiments. Based on his performance tonight, I find that hard to believe.

He starts by complaining about how weird the room is, though given that he's in one of the nicer fringe venues: an air conditioned hotel function room, this seems a bit rich. From here he discusses a host of subjects such as PowerPoint, drunk-driving, taxes, the onset of middle age, the price of Canadian ammunition, hybrid engines, Osama Bin Laden and same-sex marriage. If that sounds a little random and disjointed, then you have some idea what the show was like. None of the material is cringeworthily bad, but it only raises a few titters.

Many of his observations are fairly obvious (as aunts and uncles still treating you like a child) or rather obscure (turkey as a sedative), and much of the material is outdated: routines on the millennium bug and mad cow disease weren't topical five years ago and certainty aren't now. He also fails to adapt the material for a non-US audience: a whole routine hinging upon Canadians using coins and not notes for small currency denominations, unlike in the US, falls flat as it's the same here.

His set is also far too scripted, leading to an annoying tendency to respond to expected audience reactions even when they don't happen. He even has the audacity to apologise for a simple, inoffensive piece of material on serial killing being 'rather dark'.

I was willing to file Glen Foster away in that Fringe category of 'good open spot that has taken on a full show too soon', until at the end of the show we're given flyers telling us that his CDs and DVDs are on sale from the box office. It seems that in the US he's an established headliner and very successful. Perhaps his material just doesn't translate to a one-man show on the other side of the Atlantic, but there was certainly no evidence of this experienced comic on display here. It's not a shockingly bad show ­ there are far, far worse things you could see at the Fringe. But then again, there are far, far better things, too.

Dean Love

Review date: 1 Jan 2006
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett