Bob’s Not My Uncle and Other Devastating Truths

2
Reviewer's Rating

Mark Ritchie is a boundlessly energetic comedian who combines anecdotal humour with his passion for the church.

His set is constructed around four realisations that in his view apply to each of our lives: ‘we fail’, ‘not everyone will always like us’, ‘we can’t make it on our own’ and ‘cheap curry is cheap for a reason’. He illustrates these through a series of amusing personal stories, with the aim that these ‘truths’ will make audience members ‘see things a little differently’.

While he is an engaging performer and passionate storyteller, his manner occasionally comes across as a little patronising. This is not helped by some of the jokes – for example one about a girl beating him in a fight at school – that are both overcooked and outdated. His title is excellent, but the material does not quite match its tongue-in-cheek humour – his truths, aside from the final one, are neither literally nor ironically devastating.

Ritchie tells a good story and seems very well-meaning, but his occasionally condescending tone misses the mark of consistently effective comedy.