Power to Powell and his people, with a show that had plenty of promise and, at moments, was particularly perfect. Holding a self-recognised resemblance to both Ricky Gervais and James Corden, Powell is most reminiscent of the latter. A shame in some ways perhaps, as I couldn’t help drawing subconscious and unfair comparisons between this new, less experienced up-and-coming comedian and the more accomplished look-alike.
Powell’s show is a common and quite generically structured story of the performer’s journey through life: growing up, relationships, university, buying a house and getting to where he is today. The themes and template greatly lacked originality: there were some moments of real hilarity which showed plenty of promise but in general this was obvious comedy. His play on national stereotypes - ‘sometimes Americans write stuff down, and get it wrong’ - and some quite sweet observational comedy regarding owning pets and tabloid newspapers, whilst funny, lacked innovation. Despite this, some comments were spot on and left the audience feeling that this comedian had definite potential: ‘A toddler is like having a miniature version of Usain Bolt - with incontinence - on MDMA’.
Quite prone to shouting, Powell at times seemed to over-perform; it was often just a bit too loud, his impressions slightly over the top and the sound effects quite grating when heard through the microphone. Nevertheless, this is a light-hearted show brimming with silly banter about silly stuff; it’s amusing and pleasantly relaxed.
A bit of work on the ending is crucially necessary, as the audience is offered essentially a recap of all the jokes from throughout the show - something which fell quite flat and could definitely have done with some serious editing, if not scrapping altogether.
Powell himself is generally welcoming and likeable, but his show is far from perfect. As I left the venue, with Powell standing at the door handing out stickers asking his former audience to stick them somewhere and spread the word, I found that I wasn’t really convinced his was a show I would be highly recommending to my friends and family.
