When a performer reaches a certain level of stardom, the reviews may come in easier than ever before; with prime venue, time slots and media attention, life is made all that much easier. Far from belittling the five stars I am giving, I simply mean to say that it takes a true showman like Paul Zerdin to make classic jokes a rollicking success time and again.
When the show kicks off, the small space of the Gilded Balloon Nightclub allows for an up-close and personal meeting with ventriloquist Paul, his filthy-minded puppet Sam and other equally dysfunctional friends Albert and Baby. Much of the show consists of a rather dismayed Paul arguing with his puppet. The humour is quick, light and lithe, disarmingly predictable and inevitably coming back full circle to kick Zerdin himself in the rear. It is a well established routine, performed to a tee and woven together with some fantastic recurring jokes. One such joke is that which was never too far from our minds and therefore ripe for the picking: the ventriloquist-puppet relationship: 'What's got into you tonight?' ‘Your fist.’
Yet it's not all about the puppets. Along with much abuse of the front row, including a mind-reading act that seems to out everyone’s inner devil, Zerdin delivers a number of anecdotes, discussing the potential for havoc in a ventriloquist's everyday life - for example, the endless winding-up of his three year old nephew. Among the most impressive skits has to be his adoption of not two, but four different voices engaged in tense discussion, which Zerdin of course performed faultlessly. With Sam as his debauched alter ego, he takes every liberty open to puppets for wicked ends. The final act, which I will not ruin for you, is practically human sacrifice, and an absolute belter. The full package!
