An anarchic, unpredictable hour of offbeat comedy
When the audience enters the Soho Theatre basement they’re greeted by a cornucopia of strange objects – a ventriloquist’s dummy constructed from false teeth, for instance – and are bound to wonder how they will be used. Such is the uniquely chaotic mind of Spencer Jones, however, that they may as well not bother. It’s much easier to just sit back and enjoy the anarchic ride.
Jones has made his name through unpredictable, surrealist performances, netting him BAFTA and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominations, several BBC sitcoms, and appearances on Upstart Crow and Ted Lasso. His latest offering revolves around moving his family to Devon during the national Covid-19 lockdowns, where Jones quickly finds himself embroiled in a blood-feud with a rooster he originally bought to stave off social isolation.
The audience is invited to view the world through Jones’ unique lens, as he juxtaposes more conventional observational material with musical mash-ups and prop comedy. The action onstage is relentlessly in motion, shifting from discussions of loneliness and parenthood to an anthropomorphised Covid-19 virus in the blink of an eye.
This unpredictability is intoxicating, dragging the audience along for the ride – at any moment an offhand comment could be turned into a musical number with the aid of Jones’ loop machine. Yet despite this feeling of being off-the-rails, everything comes together at the end to reach a satisfying conclusion, with even a malfunctioning piece of equipment getting its pay-off in the show’s final moments. Somehow, Jones finds a way to anchor the absurd chaos exploding onstage into a consistent narrative.
Some of the observational comedy lacks full development, however, particularly the recurring issue of social anxiety which remains largely unexplored. It would have been interesting to look at the emotions surrounding male loneliness in more detail, and it felt like the audience would happily have engaged with this deeper conversation. Perhaps a Spencer Jones show isn’t the place for such discussions, but as a result these anecdotes feel like the exposed connective tissue for the stronger prop- and musical- comedy that make up the show’s heart.
The result is a highly entertaining hour, which whets the audience’s appetite but doesn’t fully satisfy it.
Spencer Jones: Making Friends plays at the Soho Theatre until 20th April. Tickets can be purchased here.