Dirty Filthy Rich wants to make you stinking, filthy rich. Rich beyond your wildest dreams. It wants to show you that having the money to buy your woman a Dyson will lead to avalanches of happiness. It wants you to stand up and believe in yourself and cry, ‘I’m going to be rich!’ to the heavens. Sadly, despite its good intentions, it won’t have you laughing too much along the way.
Led by Jody Kamali’s comedy creation David Wigan - a Wigan educated ‘millionaire in waiting’ - the spoof get-rich-quick seminar has a joyously simple and relatable central concept: in these austere times Wigan, in one hour, can teach you how to get rich. A quick Amazon search of the words ‘get rich’ reveals the scale of assistance one can ascertain for their on-going bank balance building campaign; Think and Grow Rich, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and Rich Dads Retire Young are all actual reads you can purchase for your own fiscal benefit and Kamali’s mock guide could easily slip into this list unnoticed.
When Kamali focuses his energy on the crowd and concentrates on creating what feels like a genuine seminar, the show works a treat. He teaches the crowd to have a can-do attitude, insisting they shout ‘I can!’ throughout, and there is much mileage to be had out of a failing businessman handing us the reigns to untold wealth.
Kamali regularly loses his footing, however, and stretches out undeveloped jokes about the world outside and casts frontman Wigan aside so that he can play some other money-making Samaritans. A ‘phone call’ with entrepreneur Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who is considering buying Greece, is a particular low-point and for the entirety of the sketch one longs for Wigan to return again and ‘teach’ us how to be dirty, filthy rich.
