Review by Jason Stone

Ross Sutherland's show isn't necessarily comedy but it's both entertaining and thought-provoking. He uses his hour to combine amusing anecdotes, philosophical musings, Dadaist storytelling and poetry into a description of a series of events best described as a premature mid-life crisis.

Sutherland used to work as a music journalist and, because his magazine was owned by Associated Newspapers, he found himself sharing office space with the prejudice pedlars of the Daily Mail. From the sound of things, Sutherland's own job was dispiriting enough but perpetually witnessing the desiccated remains of the Mail's soulless crew pushed him further and further into depths of disenchantment until he ended up feeling like he was in ‘a bad translation of a Kafka novel’.

According to an account that's both fanciful and authentic-sounding, he dealt with his disillusion through a series of strange undertakings which helped him to reconsider his life and these form the backbone of this show.

It's hard to know for certain whether everything Sutherland tells us is true or if it even matters whether it is. Comedy isn't required to be true and those who spend their time watching stand-up are very distrustful of the words ‘true story’ but there's a sincerity in this performance which suggests that truthfulness is very important to Sutherland and this makes his tale extremely compelling.

His poetry interrupts proceedings in short fitful bursts and you sense that this is his rawest work. His poems may turn out to be identified by anthropologists as the missing link between beat poetry and rap as they're delivered with the anger associated with the former; the musicality of the latter and the passion common to both.

Even though it's not a rip-roaringly funny show, there are one or two moments of hilarity. Sutherland's identification of the inappropriateness of Trojan as a brand name for condoms is an excellent piece of comedy which demonstrates that he's not afraid to flaunt a little learning.

But this is fundamentally a show about a young man laying himself bare in an attempt to explain himself and the manner in which he's done this makes you feel as though he's confiding in you (well, you and forty other people), which creates a very intimate atmosphere.

Sutherland also seems to be trying to explain himself to his family - quite literally in the performance seen by your reviewer as his father was sat in the front row. It was hard to gauge from his dad's face how much, if any, of this strange series of stories was news to him as he sat watching his son spin poignantly entertaining tales from his inner torment.

If you've read this far then you're probably someone who might value this show and you should think about going along but if you stopped reading as soon as you encountered the phrase 'philosophical musings' then... well, then it doesn't matter what you think because you've gone.

Review date: 14 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Jason Stone