Live comedy is slowly getting back into full swing after the industry was halted by the Pandemic. It’s fair to say that some comedians have struggled to find their feet after a few years off, however Troy Hawk is someone who took comedies move to Social Media in his stride and has gathered a new audience who were keen to see him live after many digital interactions.
You may well have seen one of Troy’s videos - he’s well known for standing outside chain stores as a ‘greater’ and making clever remarks to customers whilst dressed in a colourful smoking jacket with an appearance of a man in the 1920’s. One of his most popular videos see’s him welcoming customers to a branch of B&Q, where a member of staff confronts him explaining they don’t want someone being nice to customers outside, Troy then greats a customer saying “I hope you find everything you need inside, sir.” To which the disgruntled employee says “No! No we don’t want that”.
The show started at 8:00 and the first 30 minutes of warm up came from Troy himself, donning the stage in a fetching Purple smoking jacket and yellow feather, the audience whooped and chaired to see the man they had grown to love. His initial audience banter and clever retorts were met with heaps of laughter, especially as ‘Claire with an I’ - a lady who had had perhaps one too many wines - kept chirping in and was suitably dealt with. Though no formal material was covered in this, the audience felt comfortable that they were in capable hands of a man who knew his craft.
The second half was more formal comedy, scripted and accompanied by a powerpoint presentation with videos and words to reinforce the performers words - this was a resounding success as Troy seamlessly intermingled his online life with his stage career. It was perhaps a little stark to a regular theatre goer as myself to see how the audience reacted to the performance (chatting throughout, people on their phones and an almost visible tension as people wanted to swipe to the next video in the sections of the show which needed a more wordy build-up) either these were not a regular theatre / comedy crowd or people have gotten so used to instant gratification they struggle to sit through an hour and a half of well written comedy; one hopes it is the former.
The individual sections of the show were very funny, from chats about imposter syndrome, to the NHS and his very clever material linking arguments about flat-pack furniture and the Nazi regime. My negative would be that Troy has fallen ill of the same disease of many comedians - having to tie the whole show together into a final ‘message’. The last section of the night where Troy culminated the stories into a bitesized take home fell bellow the high standard he had maintained; I would be annoyed if a scripted theatre show didn’t tie up all loose ends in the final image, but with comedy it doesn’t always have to be the case. In cases of comedy shows like joint Edinburg Comedy Award winners John Robins: The Darkness of Robins and Hannah Gadsby: Nanette the intricate emotional heft of the latter parts of the show are integral to the story, where finding a commonality in the number ’33’ in Troy’s show (though clever) could have been 20 minutes more of his brilliant material.
With many people joining the waiting-list and failing to secure tickets to see the likes of Peter Kay in 2 / 3 years time for a hefty sum of money, I would heavily advise you to buy a ticket at half the price and see one of the many wonderful up and coming comedians on the circuit today. If you get a chance to see Troy Hawke on this tour (or any future shows), I would highly recommend it.
Sigmund Troy’d is touring through to March the 25th 2023.
Find out more about him on his social media platforms Instagram: @TroyHawke
Twitter: @TroyHawke
Facebook: Troy Hawke
TikTok: @Troy_Hawke
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