James Dowdeswell, despite his best efforts, is a nice guy. In his festival show No More Mr Nice Guy he tells a story of his niceness and his attempts to be un-nice. He begins with a charming portait of a homeless man, Bartholomew who lives near his house in London, and to whom, James is nice.
During the course of the show he touches on a variety of topics, including nearly being mugged by a group of ten year olds at his local pool, performing a u turn on an eight lane freeway, meeting his girlfriend’s parents, a wineries tour, a mellow road rage incident, learning martial arts and going to the footy. Whilst there isn’t a linear story as such, the show is loosely couched around an often hilarious and sometimes dramatic story about his school friend Andre. This centralises the narrative as well as rounding out the show with a very effective ending. Some of the subjects are only distantly linked to the main subject but this doesn’t seem to matter or even register at the time. James’ subject changes are almost imperceptible as he floats in and out of stories with consumate ease.
James has a confident stage persona, which showed only the slightest signs of uneasiness at the start. As soon as the laughs began to flow however, his confidence elevated until he began to really seem as though he was enjoying himself up there, excited to be sharing his stories with the appreciative crowd.
As far as stand up shows go, James ticks all the boxes, with a show that is confident, funny, original and carefully interwoven. He is certainly worth a look see.
For more info and booking details go to James Dowdeswell