To borrow from one of Glenn Moore’s own references, this show is a tale of two cities... well, actually it’s the tale of one city, a remote village in West Sussex, and the journey of a socially awkward young man between the two locations. It’s told in a joke-heavy set which doesn’t always hit the mark but is never too far away from a laugh.
As a whisky drinker I’ve never met a Glen I didn’t like. I can now say the same as a critic.
Hurstpierpoint is the name of the village where Moore spent his apparently friendless formative years and it’s at the heart of this debut solo show from a comedian who normally makes up one half of the Thunderbards sketch duo. A young man trapped in a place where the “average age is dead”, Moore details the thrills of book group membership, studying in a class of four people, making a friend, and moving to the big city, all the while weaving in a raft of cleverly constructed jokes with a decidedly high-brow flavour.
A couple of episodes dealing with romantic failures are among the highlights, and there are some well-timed callbacks throughout the latter stages which add an extra layer of complexity to the proceedings. While not all the jokes are successful the set is so thickly laden with gags that there’s barely enough time between anecdotes to notice.
As the action moves from Hurstpierpoint to London the pace doesn’t slow and although the relentless pace raises the spectre of joke fatigue there’s enough variety in Moore’s material to prevent things going stale. By the time he comes to the end of his journey he has finished showcasing an impressive range of comedic ability.
As a whisky drinker I’ve never met a Glen I didn’t like. I can now say the same as a critic. With a well crafted hour of comedy now under his belt, Glenn Moore has marked himself out as one to watch in the future.
