In a review I wrote about former RAW Comedy winner and Barry Award nominee Michael Workman’s 2011 show, Humans Are Beautiful, I noted that his idiosyncratic style was “unlikely to ever have the broad commercial appeal of someone like Wil Anderson, who is apparently quite the fan”.
Three years on, I stand by that assessment (and assume Wil’s fandom remains intact; who knows?). I enjoyed Humans Are Beautiful, more so the more I thought about it afterwards. Workman’s current show, War, doesn’t quite reach those heights but offers enough of interest to keep fans of his part-standup part-fairytale storytelling happily on board for an hour or so.
What those unfamiliar with his work might find frustrating is the way these two sides of his performance personality meld, not quite seamlessly, together. One second he’s doing a fairly old-school, frequently clever standup routine (girlfriends, ATM machines, sight gags etc); the next, without any warning, he’s shifted into metaphysical musings on a running storyline. This is characteristic.
The storyline this time around involves a world where war has destroyed the populace’s ability to dream, and a drug-addled reporter who, in seeking the truth about that war, may be able to restore the power of dreaming to the people. It is delivered – like the standup sections – via flexible, adroit wordsmithery, which is where the magic lies. If you’re into that sort of thing.
I am. As was the audience on the night I attended, and the laughter quotient was respectable. For the literately curious, and the tolerant of (self-admitted and played up) pretension, Michael Workman is worth a look.
BY MELANIE SHERIDAN
