Review by Steve Bennett

Experienced stand-up Mike Gunn takes world-weariness to almost morose extremes, with laziness and disappointment pervading his listlessly deadpan set.

These are hardly ingredients for excitement, meaning he ultimately lacks the pace and energy to reduce an audience to helpless hysterics. But there is plenty of enjoyment to be had in his downbeat meanderings on the futility of life.

His attitude, which is first encapsulated a lean, funny one-liner before spreading rather too thinly into an entire routine, is that he’s simply whiling away the years until he can inherit his father’s house and spend the rest of his days doing nothing.

The dry-as-bones delivery matches the idle outlook, but there’s also a playful undercurrent, which elevates the set whenever it reaches the surface. And there’s no doubting that his years on the circuit mean Gunn is adept at subtly controlling an audience, keeping them interested in his accurate observations, even if the gags could come quicker and sharper.

Review date: 8 Oct 2006
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett