Review: Geoff the Entertainer, The Stand Comedy , Club III & IV (Venue 12)

As WITH his Geordie shipworker turned stand-up character Mick Sergeant, Lee Fenwick’s latest creation, Geoff the Entertainer, is someone who wasn’t dealt the best hand in life. A gentleman of the road, this ebullient tramp shares Sergeant’s defiant refusal to be pitied.

* * *

Fully inhabited by Fenwick and generally sympathetic, he’s nevertheless overconfident in his entertaining capacity. Indeed, so close are the two that you have to wonder what’s the point?

He establishes an amusing guessing game with the audience regarding the stains on his trousers. But other, slightly darker set-pieces – such as when he invites a volunteer to supposedly travel through time with him or demands that we provide him with birthday presents from our pockets – hint at a troubled soul. So it’s a shame that this disturbed side doesn’t feature more prominently in the half hour or so of aimless banter and interaction surrounding it.

The show picks up a bit when he abruptly leads everyone out of his room for a diverting promenade roam around The Stand III & IV’s building, in the guise of a ghost tour. But it carries the faint whiff of desperation for a concept being stretched to breaking point.

Until tomorrow. Today 9:20pm.