Steve Bugeja is certainly trying hard. If his stage act is anything to go by, he needs to in order to succeed, being the bumbling, awkward fool that he plays there. That said, this is not the show of an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Bugeja is a strong performer and has clearly identified what works for him on stage, and is (appropriately) trying hard to make this show work.
He succeeds, by and large. The awkward, I’ve-not-prepared/I’m-so-socially-awkward-it-hurts show style belies a very real stage confidence; having to face down drunk guys from Hull who feel they need to confront you because you made a joke about Hull must take a certain amount of fearlessness, and no small grasp of improv. Bugeja tries his darndest to keep the show going: even when the punters didn’t respond to a gag as enthusiastically as perhaps he’d hoped, Bugeja was not fazed or flustered in any way, again revealing his professional side underneath his apparent uselessness. This show is actually very witty and strong. The jokes fit Bugeja’s stage persona very well and he quickly sized up his audience demographic in order to tailor his routine.‘Saturday night, lad and girl groups, so it’ll be the sex jokes’, he titters nervously to the audience, who laugh appreciatively.
This is a good show. Fans of comedians such as Jack Whitehall and Jon Richardson will definitely appreciate the self-deprecating wit and humour of Bugeja, so as long as you go with a mindset ready for comedy and not a drunken fight, you’ll love it.
