Death. Perhaps not the most obvious topic for an hour long comedy show, but that's what Derek Ryan's chosen. As time passes by, it's started weighing more heavily on Derek's mind.
Whilst initially an interesting concept, this doesn't have the legs for an hour long show. In fact, you might even say it's on it's last legs
Hailing from Ireland, a nation obsessed with death so he tells us, he’s been called the late Derek Ryan ever since his very long overdue birth. Now at the half-way station of his life, being more dead than alive, Derek has decided it’s time for some reflection.
The name Slaughterhouse Rules comes from Derek’s workplace as a young lad in Ireland. The funniest story of the evening is about Omar, the halal ninja, who encounters a raging bull not quite ready to part from his life. In less than an hour, Derek Ryan introduces a dizzying run of topics from Africa’s deadliest animals to Zombie porn and doomsday. If you think you missed the punchline, don't worry, there probably wasn’t one.
Much of Derek's comedy comes in the form of lists and since Derek likes them so much, here are the top things I hate in a comedy act: 1. Comedian laughs excessively at his own jokes, 2. Comedian constantly checks the cheat sheet on the back of his hand. 3. Comedian has no concept of timing in his delivery, 4. Comedian stumbles through a story with “yes, then, I mean, but, it’s funny really, no, anyway, um, okay, this happened when…”
So there we have it, Derek Ryan has several bad habits but it wasn’t all bad. The man is passionate in his delivery, very likeable and the show has a nice spontaneous feel to it which became obvious when he sat down with the audience afterwards, and just picked right off where he had left on stage.
But the fact remains that he ploughed through the set like bulldozer, trying to squeeze a two hour show into an hour long set.
