Clad in brown flairs and turquoise patterned shirt, Mike Bubbins is instantly a performer who stands out. Unapologetically expressing his love for all things 70s, Bubbins brings us on a journey along memory lane, comparing the past and present with a varied concoction of anecdotes, jokes and clever observations.
A show that most will enjoy, where even if a genuine laugh is left wanting at times, a desire to revisit the era he so clearly reveres is absolutely maximised.
With a moustache as large as his personality, Bubbins’ Welsh lilt is automatically welcoming as he begins his show. Choosing his home-country as the focal point for much of the piece, Bubbins offers intelligent and, at times, hilarious observations on its people and their place in the world – the self-deprecating recounting of his time travelling around the Welsh Valleys as an Elvis impersonator is worth the price of a ticket alone.
This show has something for everyone, providing people of a certain generation an opportunity to reminisce how things were, while presenting the rest with an entertaining insight into former times. Although undoubtedly a piece developed on exaggerated sentiment, Bubbins leaves the audience yearning for a visit to this utopian past where life was just that little more exciting.
The fear with a piece such as this is its potential to be exclusively appealing to a certain kind of man, but Bubbins avoids this through an honest hour-long set that covers a variant of topics, from family, to sport and music. From a comedy perspective, the performance does suffer slightly from being overly anecdotal on occasion, with the tangible impact of the punchline being lost amidst the words. However, this is not to take away from the engaging nature of these asides, and Bubbins keeps your attention throughout.
Bubbins’ personality is transparent from start to finish, and by the end of the performance the audience is no doubt of his definition of the retrosexual male. This is a show that most will enjoy, where even if a genuine laugh is left wanting at times, a desire to revisit the era he so clearly reveres is absolutely maximised.
