Stuart Laws @ Pleasance Courtyard
A clever show from Stuart Laws, but one that doesn't quite elicit enough comedy
Stuart Laws' show is intricate, creative, well structured and deftly turned. It's just short on laughs.
Like the designer of the Titanic, who purportedly sank gurgling, ‘You could see what I was trying to do here,’ it’s not how beautiful a thing is, it’s whether it floats. Laws' piece is painted as a comedy show, but underneath it’s something quite different from comedy.
Telling tales about growing up, interspersed with escapades on a puffin sanctuary, Laws is an unreliable narrator with a vivid and well-populated internal life. He weaves unusual words with repeated phrases and ideas, and it’s undeniably tight and polished. However, by the end, we're tangled in a web of devices and catchphrases.
It's unsurprising Laws is making such a success of producing films for Turtle Canyon comedy. He also clearly loves words and turning a story round to catch it in different lights. In fact, for all intents and purposes, this show seems to showcase Laws more as a creative writer who performs, rather than an hour of storytelling stand-up.