No crowd pleaser
I went with my sister to see Dan Willis. He was part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival line-up. The brochure looked promising: “Crowd Pleaser” it said. He was British, and generally British comedians are quite funny, so I thought it would be a pretty safe bet. After all, the Brits brought us The Goodies, Blackadder and Yes Minister!
Wrong! While he was funny in bits, I ended up gritting my teeth and feeling really uncomfortable and quite squeamish. He talked about sex ALOT. It reminded me of when I used to teach high school, and I used to say to my students: “Those who talk about it the most are usually the ones who are getting it the least”.
Now Billy Connolly talks about sex ALOT in his shows too. But he is hilarious. I’ve seen him live, so I know. The Scottish accent perhaps? But he genuinely likes people, I think, and has an empathy for the human condition.
Not so Dan. I felt that he had this pent up anger and was really quite the misogynist… I just sensed he was doing comedy for revenge. He did confess he was an IT guy in a past life, and I thought: “Figures”.
I felt sorry for parents who had their children with them… it really should be an R rated show. Pity it didn’t say that on the program guide.
By the way, my sister and I saw Danny Bhoy recently. Not much sex talk, but a genuinely funny guy. I still think the Scottish accent is partly responsible!
Crumbs, Im guessing you didnt like the show, fair enough..
It is a shame the festival incorrectly listed me as PG, even though Im in a licensed premises… I’m now aware of this, though there’s not much I can do about the past.
My first two shows had large child contingents, I spoke to all the parents beforehand and would’ve refunded tickets had they not been comfortable with the concept of an adult show..
Anyoldhow, its always difficult for the first couple of shows of a run, thus its a shame you saw me in my formulative weekend, though I did have good crowd reaction, I know I miss-balanced my material.
Mondays gig was very well recieved and reviewed, http://www.independentweekly.com.au/news/local/news/entertainment/fringe-dan-willis-electric-light-hotel/1448890.aspx
However, I doubt anything I can say would make you enjoy the show, thus feel free to drop me a line and I’ll refund the 2 tickets for you and your sis.
Simple as that! Note: this is a one-off offer, simply slagging me off on blogs will not result in more refunds, just excessive sulking from me!
Peace and goodwill,
Dan
🙂
Dan, appreciate you stopping by. No refund necessary as humour is very subjective thing… what makes one person laugh makes another cringe. I read the blurb, saw you on YouTube and thought I knew what I was getting. No harm done (although sensibilities slightly bruised), and your respectful response to my critique has elevated you in terms of my esteem. Have a good rest of Fringe.