Pete Monahan described Monnerisms as his rants about insignificant things. His show wasn’t so much about ranting rather it was more like gentle observations, although he did tend to get a little worked up by some of the later topics.
The material comprised mostly of observational humour covering a wide range of unrelated topics. His monologues were generally used as set ups to the songs that were peppered throughout the show. Most of these stand up routines were not particularly groundbreaking but were amusing nonetheless. The experience was enhanced by his animated stagecraft and plenty of hilarious miming. During the show he built up a great rapport with the audience, often engaging in some laugh inducing banter with them and putting them in a comfortable mood. It was good to see that he was enjoying himself on stage but his constant pauses to laugh at his own jokes were a distraction, particularly during the middle of a song.
Pete’s songs were occasionally light on humour but he more than made up for it with his spirited delivery. He employed some funny accents to fit the various genres although his guitar accompaniment or acapella renditions didn’t quite suit the styles. The inclusion of various witty popular song references added some humorous recognition but the surprise element was taken away by Pete’s over-explanation of the song during its introduction. I was aware that he was trying to be careful to not exclude anyone who wasn’t familiar with certain elements but he was in danger of getting bogged down with the detail.
The show concluded with the creation of an improvised song. He pulled this off quite well as it was the result of some amusing audience interaction, in this case a married couple he had traded gentle barbs with over the course of the show. It relied heavily on the recognition of bits of information he had earlier garnered from the couple or that he had cheekily imposed upon them.
Monnerisms was a fun mixture of stand up and song.
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