Conor Drum @ Laughing Horse, Bar 50
A decent storyteller relying too heavily on stereotypes
We’re told early in the set of Conor Drum's All My Friends are Dead that the “dead” in the title really means Married. Drum has reached a point where all of his friends are either engaged or already wed, and adding children into the mix too means that a number of his friendships have changed irrevocably. All My Friends Are Dead focuses on the rite of passage that is the stag-do, and gives us an hour of laddish storytelling that doesn’t leave much room for reflection. When Drum does allow himself to get more introspective about his own plans in life, he has interesting stories to tell and an amusing, chatty way of telling them, but the bulk of the show plays heavily on stereotypes we’ve seen before, and is rounded off by a conclusion that doesn’t feel genuine.
When he steps away from the story of a stag-do in Prague, Drum looks at his own life: how does it feel to have a disconnect between where you thought you’d be and where you currently are? How do health scares affect our planning for the future? With a casual stage presence, Drum moves easily between subjects, but this means that we quickly move away from any attempts at wordplay and back into pranking-your-pals territory.
Conor Drum: All My Friends are Dead, Laughing Horse at Bar 50 (The Alcove), until 27 Aug, 6pm, Free