When a rather generously proportioned man begins his one-man comedy show by pole-dancing to Far East Movement’s Like A G6, it’s clear that this is one performance the audience aren’t likely to forget anytime soon, but afterwards things become a bit more clear. If you ever wondered what Google would be like as a person then wonder no more, for Craig Rico Shaynak nails the character so accurately that he’ll have you clutching your sides with laughter.
With perfect comic timing and a natural talent for hilarious American humour, Google introduces us to his internet friends and family, from his little brother Yahoo! and ex-girlfriend Twitter, to his best friend Wikipedia and their big fall out over the phone. Over the course of the hour, among many others, we meet IMDB, who forces the audience to join him for updates and Google’s arch nemesis Bing, who tries to convince Google to sell out, whilst passing through the eBay auction house and bumping into its resident loan shark – ‘It’s time to pay, pal!’
Each character is so different yet Shaynak brings each of them to life with so much conviction that you may forget he is only one man. As well as these characters, he uses the many features of Google as sources for comic gold. Whether it’s constantly changing his logo to commemorate important dates and events or using balloons to help audience members get from their current location to their destination using Google Maps, Shaynak keeps the audience engaged and entertained throughout the show. Just when they think he hasn’t covered something, he stops them in their tracks, taking crowd suggestions of phrases and languages to illustrate the wonders of Google Translate or sifting through their Google Mail spam folders.
If you thought ‘LOL’ was just an annoying phrase teenagers used then, yes, you’re probably right. But in this case, the phrase is given true meaning because this is proper laugh out loud humour delivered by a comic genius. Shaynak takes all of the best (and worst) aspects of the internet and mashes them together into an hour of original comedy that will have the audience in hysterics.
