David Mills, Gimme Some Sugar

Homotopia
Unity Theatre, Hope Place
13th November 2014

Reviewed by Jennifer Keegan

I have long thought that stand-up comedians are not like the rest of us mere mortals, the instant judgement they willingly subject themselves to, is something even the most confident of other performers will never know. Any other performer you go to see because you like their work, but a comedian is something most people will go to see just hoping they will be to their taste, and therefore any comedian will not be to everyone’s taste. After all, what is hilarious to one can be offensive to another. This is the line all comedians have to walk. For that reason alone they are braver than any other performer full stop.

Unfortunately for David Mills, this line is what he tripped over multiple times throughout his one hour show at unity. Billed as a sharp suited, swaggering rant lover, we were drawn with the promise of jokes skewering celebrity, the gays and modern life. Hopefully peppered with some witty banter and salty sarcasm. What we got was an uncomfortable hour long endurance test. For a comedian so highly praised and with the awards to back it up, I was bitterly disappointed. As he was on and off a stool in the centre of the stage, it seemed more care had gone into when and how often he unbuttoned and then buttoned up his suit jacket than what he would actually say. Poorly executed jokes often on the wrong side of inappropriate left a heavy silence in the theatre. Perhaps a better comedian, realising he was headed I the wrong direction for the audience in front of him might have switched gears and headed in another direction, but even after Mills acknowledged the poor response, he still soldiered on regardless. Apart from the odd titter and the polite applause at the end of his show, silence was the order of the day. I felt sorry for Mills at the end, I hope he is to the taste of his next audience as he definitely wasn’t to mine.

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