You certainly get a lot of Dave Gorman for your money with his latest show. PowerPoint to the People initially feels like two separate shows each side of the interval, yet they also slot together beautifully to make one epic evening.
It is no surprise that Gorman is so skilful at structure. As he explains after the break, during lockdown he added a new string to his bow compiling cryptic crosswords for the broadsheets. He clearly has a penchant for creating and solving intricate puzzles.
This stage show takes in his homeschooling experiences, his fixation on the alphabet being in the wrong order and an examination of crisp weight discrepancies that goes into so much detail it takes on an absurdist majesty. When Gorman becomes interested in something, however trivial, boy does he have fun drilling down into it.
There are accounts of pranks too, but very much of the benign variety, aiming to bring joy to the world rather than mock or humiliate. If there is a theme it is one of niceness. Why be mean when you can be good? He is the kind of person who can even find something pleasant to say about Donald Trump.
Gorman is the Tom Hanks of comedy, someone brimming over with affability. Hanks, coincidentally, is one of a number of famous names that feature in a section that mischievously plays around with the nature of stardom. Our Bournemouth-based host is not immune to the seductiveness of fame. He has his own weird celebrity crush and the screenprinted cushions to prove it.
A night with Gorman would not be complete without his trademark PowerPoint presentation, which means that he gets two laughs per punchline. One from the telling and another from the visuals. The technique is particularly effective when he recalls a self-inflicted trouser-based accident. The detailed description is already hilarious, the pseudo-scientific onscreen version is the icing on the comedic cake.
This is feelgood stand-up that wears its intelligence lightly. Topics are knitted together in a way that is so laugh-inducing it will make your face hurt. Beware of the passing aside, it will come back to tickle you later on.
If there is a quibble it is that, apart from maybe Dara Ó Briain, Gorman is the fastest talker on the tour circuit and sometimes – particularly when he is explaining the nuances of cryptic crossword clues – you have to concentrate to keep up. Yet pay attention and you will be educated as well as spectacularly entertained.
