Think of a Dad-joke at a family party when everyone groans but laughs at Dad’s attempt at being funny. Now remove the joke, your Dad, the family party and the laughing, simply imagine that groaning sensation. Matthew Crosby’s AdventureParty is full to the brim of anecdotes and jokes that will leave you feeling like this for an hour. Crosby is endearing with pictures of himself in his teens and a clever opening to the show; I initially thought that it could have been magical but unfortunately he drags out his reasonably funny ideas to a level that isn’t even awkward, purely boring. He loves explaining, with the help of a slide show, how nerdy he is and the differences between nerds and geeks. How nerds will correct people’s grammatical errors and his personal obsession-like love for Nando’s and their loyalty cards. The Nando’s jokes begin promisingly but once ten minutes have passed and Crosby is still asking people what they would choose from the menu at Nando’s, it is painfully obvious that this show doesn’t quite work. Crosby is clearly quick-witted and interesting, but AdventureParty doesn’t seem to be exemplifying these attributes. Some people laughed their way through the hour, I’m not sure if that was because of a less-than-average taste in comedy or simply out of pity – either way, it definitely wasn’t because of hilarious punch lines or genius gags. Embarrassingly, Crosby asked one woman in the audience how much she paid for her ticket, she responded with £11.50 and Crosby promised to give a show worthy of £12.00. This promise can be accurately described as a lie. Crosby will take you on about as much of an AdventureParty as driving to Sainsbury’s to buy balloons.
