An uproariously funny piece of comedy, complete with robots, Olympic champions, and a strong, clear message to take home.
Earlier this week, Rhys Darby took the stage at the Theatre Royal to perform his brand new stand up show; The Legend Returns, on the penultimate night of his UK tour. This show is filled with masterful callbacks and colourful characters—that Darby manages to play so well, you forget there’s only one person on the stage.
Darby managed to get the audience on-side immediately, partly due to his opener; Steve Wrigley who—as Darby put it—prepared us for the Kiwi humour we were about to see. Wrigley performed a clean thirty minutes of behind the scenes anecdotes, light crowd work and memorable (if slightly overdone) criticisms of generational quirks to get us started off. This opening act was a much needed energy boost to get everyone in the mood for laughing.
After a brief interval, Rhys Darby entered the stage and the show began. Darby utilises his knack for physical comedy successfully and consistently, giving us impressions of robot vacuum cleaners or cyber trucks. There is barely a still moment on the stage in the hour long show, which is a clear testament to his incredible stamina.
Not only does Darby nail the physical comedy—the sound effects he created live on stage are even more impressive than they are funny (which is saying something), and made for some fantastic storytelling. His talent for creating strange sounds is highlighted during his bit about wacky new Olympic events, where he uses a soundboard to create a song that unravels into a story about man on the railway line who refuses to leave. Within this story, Darby manages to fit; a police car blaring it’s siren, a helicopter circling the scene, and of course, a slow moving train—along with all sorts of fun character voices.
Despite all of this, most of the hour is taken up by Darby’s fantastical story about a not so distant future, where robots are planning a revolution against humanity. Accompanied by his trusted Rumba, Darby is the hero who manages to save humanity by preventing this disaster. While bizarre and silly at times, this story is a powerful warning about the dangers of generative AI. Through clever analogies and farcical humour, Darby tells us exactly how quickly AI could ruin our society, and chastises the billionaires who are profiting off of it. It is an incredibly powerful and relevant message, delivered in a way that will leave you thinking for a while.
All in all, a wonderfully entertaining show written from the heart. If you have a chance to catch Rhys Darby’s stand up show, you shouldn’t miss it!