Steve Gribbin: Viva Gribbostania!

Watching Steve Gribbin live is a bit like watching your dad tell jokes. It can be quite embarrassing. But to be fair, Gribbin probably has a lot better material than your dad. His material is so good in fact, it's hard to know why a lot of it misses the mark. Some goes over everyone's heads, some fails simply due to bad timing and the rest is just brushed over. It's frustrating.

Gribbin performs most of the set to the back of the room (which is unoccupied), he plays guitar like he's in DC and generally ambles on like there's no-one else there. This too is frustrating. With such great material, he should be embracing the crowd and getting involved, instead of just holding back ever so slightly.

As part of this show's premise, Gribbin wants to start his own nation. He explores flags, anthems, Eurovision entries and generally builds the scene nicely. He never fully explores the theme however, an hour simply isn't a long enough period to tackle this. The resultant feeling is quite rushed and left this reviewer with the impression that the topic was barely touched on. Gribbin is a likeable character though, and his material may be almost enough to carry you through what is generally a comfortable hour