Lost Voice Guy: A Voice of Choice

First off: Lost Voice Guy is pretty darned inspirational. Though he’s unable to speak due to cerebral palsy, he still decided to pursue a career as a stand-up. There’s an app for that – the show is delivered through his iPad. It’s a pretty memorable hour and has obviously had a lot of hard work put into it. He’s the kind of guy who makes you wonder what on earth you’ve been doing with your life.

Sadly, the material itself needs work. While his ‘audience interaction’ really takes advantage of his USP, and there are a few great lines that take the audience by surprise, a riff about Hitler lacks a discernible punchline, and other material is fairly predictable and at times a bit corny. Some of the trouble perhaps exists in the fact that it’s not quite a live performance – although it’s necessarily all pre-written, some kind of day-to-day variation could really lift it.  

I heard it described afterwards as ‘not quite comedy’ and that’s perhaps what sums it up best. Some anecdotes about his life walk the wrong side of the comedy/tragedy line. It’s a compelling show, but needs a bit more bite to really make it as top-class comedy.