Review: Adam Buxton BUG @ Greenwich Comedy Festival

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 174 months ago
Review: Adam Buxton BUG @ Greenwich Comedy Festival

Adam-Buxton.jpg
Buxton disappears beneath his beard
Adam's presentation starts so well. Freshly made Keynote graphics schwing across the screen in a stupidly homemade way. As the BUG credits kick in though Buxton realises he's forgotten to plug the sound in and the charismatic shambolic fiddling with the mac to make everything work right approach that characterises this show begin.

The geekily successful premise of BUG is that Adam shares some music videos and animation he's found on the internet with you, marvelling at some aspect or other, then reads out some comments, exposing the idiocy, self importance, nerdiness or endearing enthusiasm of the vast and random YouTube community. Banter between videos plays on Adam's talent for shameless arrogance, funny voices and genuine passion for this stuff and we love him for it.

There are some great videos - some BUG favourites, some new, and some Adam's own (the rap Ratatouille really is priceless). Check out Western Spaghetti by Pes and Again and Again by A Bird and a Bee to get a feel for it.

Sometimes watching the 2 or 3 minute videos can feel a bit much (but maybe that's because we could only swing standing tickets at the back of the theatre.) What we really want is to hear Adam being funny, which he is, effortlessly. He's joined by Garth Jennings - music video supremo and mate - and their meanderings through their webcast encounter with Radiohead in 2007 are behind the scenes-tastic, up close and personal with Thom Yorke (somewhere Adam likes to be) In place of a fantastic gag or witty sign off, Adam just pulls out the funniest video of the whole evening - himself with Joe and Louis Theroux messing about dancing to Groove is in the Heart ten years ago and everybody files out with a huge smile on their face.

Greenwich Comedy Festival ends Sunday. Check out listings and tickets online.

Last Updated 12 September 2009