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Darren Walsh: S'Pun

 
James W. Woe Review by James W. Woe 3 Published: 4 Aug 2016 Pleasance Courtyard Show Dates: 3 Aug 2016-29 Aug 2016

Unsurprisingly Darren Walsh's S'Pun is an hour of puns. Depending on how you feel about puns you may add or subtract a star to my rating.

If you love puns, well then he's good at them and there is lots of them. If you hate them, he isn't going to change your mind.

The quality of the jokes ranges wildly, which is an inherent issue with this format of comedy. The gags that work best take the longest amount of time to set up, usually because they follow a feedline then punchline format. But shorter jokes suffer from thin premises and tenuous connections. They do run well together but there is no theme or idea underpinning the show, which can often create a love or loathe scenario for the average comedy fan.

Walsh uses a mixture of visual and audio effects, which is novel and certainly helps sustain a feeling of energy throughout the show. The sections that work the best break from his usual formula and are often a silly idea involving an accent or impression.

Sporadically he will ask for a topic from an audience member. This is a nice idea but for the performance that I saw there wasn't a knockout joke and unfortunately nobody tried to tip him up with a difficult suggestion. However, he does not seem comfortable with interacting with the audience in this way.

There's not much else to be said about the show. If you love puns, well then he's good at them and there is lots of them. If you hate them, he isn't going to change your mind.

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The Blurb:

Fresh from winning Dave's Joke of the Fringe and re-telling it dozens of times to a TV camera, Darren Walsh (BBC's iWonder) set to work on coming up with a completely new set of jokes for 2016. S’Pun is the follow-up to 2015’s five-star show Punderbolt, cramming in even more animations, videos and sound effects. Darren also made the Top 10 Jokes of the 2015 Fringe in the Guardian, the Mirror and the Telegraph. 'Unstoppable tsunami of stupid puns.' (Chortle.co.uk). ‘The most pun you can have with your clothes on. Punbelievable!’ *****(Mirror).