Much like the villages that Andrew Bird has made the subject of his latest stand up offering, not much of note happens during Global Village Fete. It’s a loosely funny set delivered by a reasonably engaging comedian that isn’t particularly concerned with offering anything new.
Perhaps this is to be expected given the relatively thin premise; Bird recounts anecdotes of his disastrous attempt to tour UK village halls. It’s quite fascinating the amount of material he manages to squeeze out of the concept that villages are small and everyone knows each other. Nevertheless, this doesn’t make for a scintillating show; so formulaic are the stories that it’s often more fun to guess the punch line than to listen.
Bird’s persona certainly fares better than his jokes, playing to a crowd clearly comes naturally to this comic and he’s nothing but welcoming to an audience. Indeed he almost tripped over his words at the start to reassure the room that nobody would be picked on or made to feel uncomfortable. It’s all very cuddly but for anyone who’s not fond of the Michael McIntyre approach to stand up, be prepared to wince here.
Bland is a tad harsh as summations go but it’s undeniable that Global Village Fete is a show which skirts the edge of dullsville. It’s doubtful that even die-hard fans of rural British cultural quirks would be in stitches over this, but they’re at least likely to enjoy it more than the rest.
