John Moloney is welcomed to the stage at this year’s comedy festival by a rather unfunny, prerecorded ‘skit’ between himself, Paul McDermott and Mikey Robbins. Only Moloney sees John present an hour of broad, accessible material with little new to say.
He kicks off by riffing adequately with the audience as he launchs into his material proper. Much of John’s material, particularly in the early part of the show, is predictable, in both content and delivery. He leans on the basic ‘pull back and reveal’ formula heavily, without bringing anything new, subtle or interesting to the ’...and then I got off the bus’ gag. As he got into some of his longer stories though there were glimpses of originality, particularly as the stories become oriented around personal experience.
Although inoffensive and broadly unintimidating, John Moloney is definitely a comedian of a bygone era, relying on the kind of schtick that alternative comedians of the early eighties were rebelling against.
I have to admit that much of the (mostly older) crowd seemed enjoy this show well enough, and they had certainely warmed to John by the end, but for my money this show was lazy, antiquated and lacked anything that would draw me back again.
Visit the comedy festival website for bookings and further details