Ali Blatcher went to see Dave Chawner’s Work In Progress Show at Laughing Horse Comedy @ The Quadrant.
Who else would want to, on a May Bank Holiday Monday, see, and critique, a show about mental health (not mental illness)?
Because I would.
It is obvious right from the get go that Dave Chawner is experienced with audience interaction. He puts us in the safe zone immediately, something that comedians rarely achieve, by complimenting an audience member as he starts his insightfully refreshing show.
Read more: Brighton Fringe Festival: The Ultimate Guide
What ensues is dark humour, incorporating his lived experience with observational comments and anecdotes that hold the audience’s attention for the entirety of the piece.
A particularly brilliant performance tactic by Chawner is staying present in the moment whilst multitasking, for example, making comparisons about different reactions to his work-in-progress jokes. Although Dave would probably rebel against this on-stage mindfulness, as he cheekily rants about fluffy holistic practices to fix mental health conditions! As a yogi myself, not a single brain cell was offended at any point in this stunning act of honesty.
The audience reacted with plenty of grumbling guffaws throughout, before staying pin-drop silent at Dave’s final message that was clearly communicated. It was a calling that a lot of people who live with a mental health condition have been forced to experience – that we should learn to be more comfortable with discomfort. And sometimes laugh about it! Though he would not recommend to live, laugh, love…
A few Freudian slips aside (I’m sure the psychoanalyst would be proud), Chawner’s Mental Fringe show was a fantastic viewing, highly recommended by psychiatry doctors (like myself) everywhere! Not the faint-hearted, but definitely for the bold-brained, Dave delivered. And there were no prescriptions of nature or baths necessary, simply pure genius comedy.
Ali gives this show: Four stars.
Audience quotes: “Ha ha ha ha”. “Silly twisted delightful humour”
Dave Chawner’s workshops: www.comedyforcoping.com
Dave’s Instagram: @dave_chawner
