Lawrence Mooney is a comedian who’s been on the scene for a long time and this experiences shows. Do not come to his new festival show Where To? expecting an episode of “Postcards”, this is Lawrence at his risqué, irreverent, cheeky and sometimes caustic best.
Where To? tells the story of Lawrence’s journey to become a Taxi Driver and goes on to tell tales of his subsequent experiences. Lawrence’s journey makes for a fascinating one, and the way he tells it compounds the interest. He has combined a really interesting mix of stand-up, role play and characterisations to create a show that is as tight as they come, without ever being rushed. His stories, whilst taking on cliché ideas, never slide into cliché themselves, with Lawrence bringing a fresh, original take to each of his ideas. His characterisations can be poignantly scathing and yet at the same time they are full of empathy. In fact Lawrence’s sense of empathy really permeates his story telling, except when it comes to obnoxiously drunk passengers.
Lawrence had his audience eating out his hand from the get go. Through a combination of comic devices, spot on characterisations, ham theatrics, occasional, well placed vulgarity, some gentle (by Lawrence’s standards) audience ribbing and endearing storytelling he creates a show that leaves an audience knowing that they’re in the hands of someone who just knows how to do his job really well.
This show had me belly laughing from about one minute in, and I didn’t stop for the rest of the show. The only disappointment was that when I left the show (armed with my new found inside knowledge of the Taxi industry) I couldn’t find a bloody Taxi anywhere.
“Where To?” runs from Tuesday to Sunday until the 28th April. For full booking details check out the MICF website