Review: Shaky Start For Comedian Nick Thune

Nick Thune, Soho Theatre ★★☆☆☆

By Ben Venables Last edited 106 months ago

Last Updated 02 February 2016

Review: Shaky Start For Comedian Nick Thune Nick Thune, Soho Theatre 2

Nick Thune knows his show isn't going to plan. At one point he suggests the audience listens to his comedy album on Spotify or watches his Netflix special. He's not trying to promote these recordings, he seems genuinely concerned the crowd may leave with an opinion based on tonight's performance.

It's because of those recordings that some of us are here in the first place. The albums mark Nick Thune, a regular on The Tonight Show in America, as a truly intriguing standup. Like Demetri Martin, Thune's comedy is normally full of idiosyncratic one-liners, with a strumming guitar and a confident but endearing playfulness.

However, with this tour Thune has gone in a different direction and switched to a more plain-dealing storytelling hour. Unfortunately his confidence dwindles and mild alarm sets in as he realises certain US references might be lost in translation. Each anecdote also seems to hop from one to another leaving the hour with little natural flow.

Yet the stories we hear tonight — memorably including a stoner dog and a bizarre finale to a suicide jump — have some of the warped turns we are expecting, and now he's over the hurdle of the first night Thune can bring out the show's, and also his own, true potential.

Nick Thune plays Soho Theatre until 6 February, 7.30pm. Tickets £15/£12.50 (weekdays), £20/£17.50 (weekend).