The premise of the show is that This Is your Life is doing a special on Kenny Moon, comedian. With the help of a video presentation and a series of special guests Chris Henry presents an hour long special in which people from Moon’s past come in to share their memories of the performer. Chris Henry plays the TV presenter, Mike McCabe is Kenny Moon and character comedian Milo McCabe takes all the rest of the roles upon himself.
McCabe puts his character skills to good use, playing in turn: an Irish traveller; a poncey young actor; an old comedy colleague of Kenny Moon’s; a Hollywood agent; a ladyboy; and Tyson Moon, hapless son of the titular Kenny McCabe is a generous performer with loads of energy and charisma. His accents are great and he dominates the stage. With loads of energy and excellent timing, he gives it his all despite playing to a small audience and makes the show feel like something special.
The humour is vaguely surreal and mildly wacky and the audience interactions are extremely loosely tied into the plot. This is an exuberant performance and at times very funny indeed.
It is difficult to sum up the plot without giving away the surprise conclusion but suffice to say that everything gets a bit meta and philosophical and the play drifts away from straight up comedy and tries to tackle some other issues. The crafting of this reveal deserves some more attention but given it has a month long run, I’m sure this play can grow.
This show has promise in its premise and assurance in its execution and a bigger audience will help it jump from good to great.
