Soho Theatre – 3 December 2019
Reviewed by Donna Easton
5*****
Oh Spencer Jones! A joy to watch and a show that is not only right up my street but is moving in to my house and living in the spare room.
The perfect antidote for a lousy day at the office. What better than 50 minutes of utterly silly sod silliness? The show is a feast of household object characters, creepy puppets, masks, props and of course the things we all leave behind. Spencer himself, a sweet and genuine ‘dickhead’ who seems to just effortlessly make the audience fall in love with him whilst introducing us to his crazy ‘home’ and very odd looking ‘family’ has a style of communication with the audience that is so special. Yes, we know he is ridiculous and it looks at times like he is ad-libbing but it is clear that this show is beautifully crafted with love and care. We were treated to a few tracks on the loop machine that were not only bloody funny but incredibly clever and really catchy songs and using sound bytes from his children and the audience were little moments of gold.
In and amongst the crackers stuff, there were touching moments of sincerity and I felt a stillness in the room when he pondered what of all of us will be remembered? What would we leave behind?
You may be an acquired taste but for me, Spencer Jones, more please! You embrace the silly with such style and (although may be an obvious thing to say) something utterly endearing and warm is that you appeared to be genuinely chuffed when you made us laugh. If your objective is to bring joy and laughter then job done. You simply make me happy!