Watching Zoe Coombs Marr perform Dave is akin to watching reality TV: the star of the show is awful and the concept is flawed, but it’s somehow irresistible.
This is a show about a comedian who tanks, spectacularly. Dave isn’t just a bad comedian, he’s a truly shite one, spending most of his hour of power talking about the tired old ‘battle of the sexes’ and using ancient one-liners. But the character itself is really just a prop for taking the idea of ‘bad comedy’ to whole new levels. It’s a deceptively clever show, since Coombs Marr manages to pay homage to the worst type of mainstream ‘comedy’ by tearing it to shreds.
While the execution of Dave isn’t perfect, the relative simplicity of the idea delivers some truly extraordinary stuff. It’s actually harder than it looks to be crap in an entertaining way, and while the lag in the middle of the show does lay this bare, the closing helps it recover most of its footing by showcasing a couple of brilliant skits that exemplify why it’s worth taking risks in comedy.
Dave is an investment piece: you have to pay your dues by being both uncomfortable and horrified. But you are then rewarded with a performance that, however uneven, does give us excellent reason to expect more from this particularly talented and boundary-pushing comedian.
BY SIOBHAN ARGENT
