Saturday, 18 March 2023

Ardal O'Hanlan, "The Showing Off Must Go On", Kings Theatre, Glasgow. Saturday 18th March, 2023


The Showing Off Must Go On but maybe it shouldn't until he's worked up a whole new set of material. I'd heard several of his routines before. Not that he wasn't funny. Even familiar jokes from the mouth of a seasoned comedian are funny and he is a master of the unexpected turn of phrase. I just felt he appeared tired, sometimes uncomfortable, and perhaps even a bit rusty. The audience laughed in all the right places but their reaction was muted for a Saturday night in Glasgow. There were no rolling waves of laughter. He did his two halves and that was that.

I was a tad distracted too. It had nothing to do with the gentleman beside me whose elbow kept prodding me (to be clear, spatially, he was at fault, having claimed more than just his side of the armrest). Nor was it because of the germs I was imagining his partner had spread, having demonstrated such repetitive sneezing (pre-show and during the interval), it could have qualified as a Harry Hill finale routine. 

No, it was because my wife pointed out, just at the end of the interval, as the lights went down, that my finger was so chubby, I would not be able to remove my wedding ring.

Challenge accepted! As Ardal returned to the stage, I couldn't pay attention because I was too busy squeezing my finger and spinning and twisting the ring, in an effort to prove her wrong. After five minutes of intense twirling, I succeeded. The ring came off. 

I then spent the next forty minutes trying not to drop it.

I feared the raked seating of the stalls would cause it to roll down to the front and I'd be forced to climb after it, row after row, Roberto Benigni style, to retrieve it. Or worse, I'd have to stand up and interrupt the show asking everyone to check under their seats knowing some greedy swine would keep it for themselves. I'd be trawling the pawn shops of Glasgow for days, weeks, months even, hoping it would turn up and that I wouldn't have to pay a small fortune to get it back, all the while sleeping the dog's house for being so stupid. 

Fortunately, that didn't happen, so, as soon as the lights went up, I showed her how wrong she was (then quickly returned it to the finger again before she made it permanent).

Sorry, Ardal, it wasn't your best night. Nor mine. 


 

Ticket price: £21.50

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