Review by Steve Bennett

There’s not much here to actually review – a 35-minute routine (not 50 as advertised) that barely qualifies as a show from a comic at the level of ‘competent open spot’.

Yet for this, not only has 19-year-old Jack Druce paid to be in the programme and printed all the flyers and posters he needs, but employed an international publicist. The phrase ‘don’t run before you can walk’ springs to mind.

Despite its brief running time, the show manages to surprisingly woolly, with lots of filler and simple observations stretched into routines they cannot sustain. Reinforcing a weak premise by acting it out doesn’t make it any stronger.

Maybe it’s his youth, but Druce doesn’t have much to say about anything. YouTube, sarcastic responses to advertising slogans and talking about watching Gray’s Anatomy are as ambitious as his set gets.

The two most important things to have happened to him of late are to be asked to sit next to a plane’s emergency exit – making him fret that the responsibility for the safety of others shouldn’t fall on him – and getting a $200 fine for fare-dodging which is, like, so unfair.

The jokes he gets from these subjects, and his extreme-sports fanatic father, are largely weak, and more than once does he draw attention to the fact the small audience didn’t respond in the way he’d hoped. Buy they reacted in the way the material demanded.

Encouraging words from Wil Anderson may grace his poster, but Druce will only fulfill his early promise if he learns not to take the first line of attack that comes into his head and ruthlessly pare down routines till only the funny remains.

It’s been three years since he appeared at the final of the Raw new act competition, but Druce still doesn’t appear particularly at home on stage, with a delivery that doesn’t flow as easily as a one-sided conversation should.

It may seem harsh to critically kick a comic so young, but he needs to concentrate more on learning his craft before trying to hype one-man shows he’s not yet ready for. Time is on his side, so let’s hope he uses it wisely.

Review date: 11 Apr 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett