Daisy Doris May: Big Night Out ★★★½
★★★½ Daisy Doris May: Big Night Out | Assembly George Square Studios
A powerhouse threesome of outre comedy characters that perhaps need a little more added to their story, and a little less reliance on the audience to carry the action.
There is a risk with multi-character shows of losing momentum during the costume change between characters, and Daisy Doris May cleverly dodges this by creating a mock night-out-in-a-club story – on video and on stage – with the audience playing supporting roles. One audience member, cast as bouncer, gets a lot to do – and boy is she a natural fit as a real life bouncer!
Daisy Doris May’s strongest character is unpredictable German minimal techno-neon-bondage-freak Häns Off. His antics in the queue outside the nightclub make for a hilarious start to the show, with his finely honed festival style, fierce fashionista bitchiness and beautifully bonkers gags. Less successful is Steve Porters, a boyband wannabe who is sweet but not as funny as the other two – and overly reliant on 90s-00s nostalgia. The audience laps it up, but the jokes don’t ultimately reach any crescendo. In the middle rung of the DDM ladder is an Australian spiritual healer who wanders around for a long time ‘downloading’ audience member’s thoughts – but it seems to owe quite a lot to the Kath and Kim world of Australian grotesque.
The whole show is reminiscent of sketch shows from the likes of Morgana Robinson, and the trash aesthetics of 90s comedy TV shows like Harry Enfield, but could do with a bit more of a set-up to the jokes. Perhaps shorter sketches would have worked better than twenty minute stints, offering more opportunity to develop a narrative-led situation for May’s riotous characters.
Daisy Doris May’s character comedy performance is top notch (if a little safe) but needs a more solidpremise and sharper set pieces to really drive it to the showstopper status it deserves to be.
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
