The End of the World Show is an entertaining whirl through the world’s major religions and their approaches to the eponymous End-Times, written and performed by comedian Mark Speed. In character as ‘Nice Mr Death’, Speed acts as a kind of honest salesman, pitching each religion to the audience with the help of a useful multimedia slideshow highlighting the relevant pros and cons. He is extremely keen for us to get the best deal, and so the apocalyptic prophecies and promised afterlife offered by each religion are carefully and thoroughly examined, leading to more than a few surprises along the way.
It’s all very informative stuff, and Speed is a confident and engaging host. Basing a comedy show around a tongue-in-cheek look at the sacred tenets of some of the world’s major religions is dodgy territory, but Speed manages to poke fun at a dangerous subject matter and get away with it, utilising innocent charm and bucketloads of inoffensive goodwill.
Genuine laughs are few and far between, however, and by the end of the show the repetitive format starts to wear. The bullet-pointed pros and cons are often too obvious to merit any time taken dwelling on them, and while Speed is a knowledgeable guide the show lacks some much-needed moments of wit and satire.
For a free performance The End of the World Show is surprisingly well put together, and as a crash course in populist theology it provides some intriguing tidbits. The comedy may be lacking somewhat, but nevertheless this is still an entertaining hours worth of fun suitable for all the family.