Mark Restuccia cuts right to the point. With no time for the usual ‘what do you do for a living’ audience banter, Restuccia gives us a full hour on one singular subject, internet dating.
Whilst most of the material is funny, the show is very much tailored to the people who do internet dating, leaving those who have gone for the pure shadenfreude left a bit out of the loop, and some of the jokes fall dead, giving the impression that they were kept in in order to maintain a full hour of work on a singular subject. This is a piece that could easily have been ten minutes or so shorter with some fine combing. The accompanying show PowerPoint presentation is a perfect example of this, having worked really well in parts and missing originality and flair in others. However, asking your audience to join you in mocking other people’s dating profiles will only work if you feel a sense of willingness to have your own scrutinised too. I get the feeling that Restuccia is too protective for that.
There is a real sense on more than one occasion that Restuccia himself may have given up on the material, as some gags are delivered with an attitude that suggests, ‘what’s the point?’ But as I said before, this is a show of good material with potential.
Whilst it’s obvious that the show is about being socially awkward and not good at talking to people, these aren’t traits you expect to find in a format of performance that is all about confidence and talking at people, and the bond between audience and comedian is patchy in parts. Restuccia was clearly thrown by a couple of drunken walk-outs, but Saturday night Fringe stand-up was never meant to be easy. As he starts to say ‘keep the audience on your side’ to himself for reaffirmation, we start to really see how personally he is taking it.
This is a show worth seeing so long as Restuccia can keep his moral up and maintain his faith in the material.
