Graham Clark’s Not Here

Laugh Gallery—Wee Johnny’s

Graham Clark’s stand up show is exactly as advertised. Wanting to ‘cut the cost of fringe’, he has filmed the show, downloaded it on an iPad and strapped that iPad to a helmet. A ‘surrogate’ (Graham under a morph suit) then acts out hand gestures and appropriate body movements while the movie plays on his head.

An interesting take on stand up, this is more of a novelty piece. I appreciate Graham experimenting with the form, I just couldn’t seem to invest myself in the act like I normally do. I love stand up but part of the joy is watching the comedians gestures, body language, and facial expression. I need all three generally to help myself process what’s going on. Graham is hilarious in his own right but I felt this format took some of that away. I liked the material not the format. If I wanted to watch something prerecorded, Netflix and bed sounds a whole lot better than a dark bar.

Kaitlyn Kriss