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Don't Bother

 
Paul Fisher Cockburn Review by Paul Fisher Cockburn 4 Published: 8 Aug 2019 Underbelly, Bristo Square Show Dates: 31 Jul 2019-26 Aug 2019

It takes a certain bravery, or innocence, to name your debut full-hour show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Don’t Bother. Potentially, it's opening up a collective noun of own goals: "Don't Bother Seeing This Show," being just the most easy critical cheap-shot. Except, when it comes to Bróccán Tyzack-Carlin's poetry, spoken word and audience rapport, the obvious take-away is quite the opposite: "DO Bother To See This Show. Bother lots."

His voice helps. It's deep, characterful, full of colour and subtlety.

Though some might suggest Bróccán’s a star in the making, I'd suggest he's pretty fully formed already, just waiting to be discovered by comedy's top astronomers. His voice helps. It's deep, characterful, full of colour and subtlety; the sort of voice you expect to soothe you on Radio 4, though perhaps not then panicking about the logical inconsistency of saying someone "looks like a million bucks". Or even "a million books". Talking of which, Bróccán shows he'd be a natural for the talking book of Enid Blyton's The Adventures of Peter Rabbit, although he might question some of the details!

His own attempt at a children's book, called Happy as Larry, is delightfully sick, though arguably his best riff is about the many years of mental distress triggered by the T-shirt phrase: "Dip me in Chocolate and Throw me to the Lesbians." Bróccán successfully manages to wring much more material out of this than you'd think possible. Less showy, but equally good, are a series of poems about Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong, spread throughout the show, that are essentially about ignoring both the external and internal voices trying to tell each of us: "Don’t bother" trying to achieve anything.

Early on, Bróccán suggests he chose his show’s title as advice for us: "Don't Bother" looking for some unifying theme, or even connections between disparate examples of his writing, produced over several years. Except, properly modest writer that he is, he has found those connections, and played them expertly. And as a performer, he has just the right level of tact not to draw too much attention to the fact. Catch him if you can.

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The Blurb:

A stand-up poetry show about dead dogs, chocolate and nostalgia. Multi award-winning performance poet and alumnus of the Durham Revue, Bróccán Tyzack-Carlin presents a semi-coherent exploration of nothing in particular, using some words that rhyme and some more that don't. Blending surreal humour with storytelling and spoken word, Don't Bother is a unique hour of comedy. 'An hour of pure joy' (Dominic Berry). 'May be at the start of his career, but is at the top of his game' ***** (Issuu.com/BunburyMagazine).