Richard McKenzie is in Mint Condition is a re-staging of the Comedy Festival show of a few years ago that explored his interest in comic books, World of Warcraft and other cult pursuits. Those hoping to learn specifics about Richard’s involvements in these things will unfortunately only get the bare minimum of details. While some interesting facts about Richard were revealed (for example, we were told the reason behind his distinctive tattoos), he preferred to gloss over most of the personal details in favour of poking fun at others involved in these subcultures and the silliness of the products offered.
There were several routines included in this show that have been part of his repertoire for some time. These were hilarious stories that always get a huge response, but he barely got away with including some of them in the context of this show. A couple of these tales were actually related to the topic at hand while others were preceded by a tenuous segue which made their inclusion seem a little forced.
This show was quite reliant on technology; using PowerPoint to provide numerous examples of the weird and wonderful world of niche pursuits. Segments such as the ill-advised Cosplay outfits and dodgy superheroes/villains were exercises in simply pointing out the ridiculousness of the images (and he had found some appallingly examples that were hilarious) with a little background so that we could fully appreciate the lameness. His opening slide show, that used a sequence of hand drawn images accompanied by a voice over, was brilliant and inventive. These drawings were amusing on their own but Richard’s ridiculing of his own artistic talents amongst the narrative made this particularly hilarious.
Richard has been at the stand up game for many years and this was another polished performance. He has always been a little overzealous in the recounting of his stories, almost to point of almost being tongue tied, but he recounts his material with such enthusiasm that it is impossible not to be swept up in the fervour. His storytelling was as compelling and hilarious as it always is. He hadn’t allowed for much in the way of audience interaction in this show as it was quite tightly scripted but it was such a fun journey that this wasn’t a huge omission.
...Mint Condition was a wonderful show that kept the punters laughing throughout. It may be primarily aimed at people familiar with these geeky subjects but even those without such knowledge will learn about what these strange people get up to.
Visit the Fringe website for booking details.