Review by Steve Bennett

American comic Drennon Davis has perhaps spent just too much time driving though his county’s roads, flicking between radio stations in the search for something good.

Well, his Edinburgh show recreates that same experience… right down to seeking the gems amid the static. This is a slick, well-produced show, if not always on the right wavelength.

With the aid of keyboardist and occasional vocalist Monique Moreau, and a bank of loop and effects pedals, this former Last Comic Standing contestant recreates all the elements of radio: the irritating DJs, the even more irritating adverts, the jingles and the songs.

They are almost all music stations, except for one amusingly dull parody of the worthy National Public Radio – but the rest have names like K-RAP. Yes Davis does stoop that low…

Likewise the pirate station is for the kind of pirate you’ve just thought of, while some tired old sketch formats – what would it be like if Morrisey left your outgoing answerphone message? – are repackaged as commercials into this tight and slick audio soundscape. The reworking of Abbott and Costello’s Who’s On First involving the name of Roger Daltrey’s lot does work, however, as it’s played out so stupidly.

The major point of difference between this and other sketch shows is clearly the beatboxing. Davis lays down vocal loops like a credit-crunch Reggie Watts  for almost all of the stations on his dial. But this slows the pace down, since before we get anywhere we need a few bars of groundwork, in which nothing funny happens.

Often that continues into the sketches, too.

But his forte seems to be song parodies; as a rapper he waxes lyrical about his ‘average sized dick’, expertly spoofs the ‘in-da-club’-style R&B lyrics, while the suggestive words of a teen pop princess’s bubblegum hit end up in a dark place.

But Davis can be as repetitive in his lyrics as he is with the backbeat, which again can diminish the returns – even though this works excellently as Moreau sings the refrain from The Guess Who’s Seventies song These Eyes (not a track that troubled the UK charts) with ever increasing pitch. Moreau, a vision of hipster chic, certainly demonstrates impressive range in this silly segment.

But not all in this show – championed by the Pajama Men, who even get their name into the title – is quite so impressive and funny, and there are plenty of times when you may find yourself tuning out.

In that patchy quality, it’s a very accurate reflection of spinning down the FM dial…

Review date: 9 Aug 2012
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Assembly Roxy