Two species of modern standup jostle for pre-eminence in Josh Sharp’s hit off-Broadway import ta-da! One is PowerPoint comedy; the other is humour mined from personal trauma. At first, form is foregrounded over content, as Sharp goes wild with a clicker, projecting his introductory battery of “hellos”, “hi’s” and “welcomes” in ginormous letters on an upstage screen. There will be 2,000 slides in this 75-minute show, he tells us, and they will demonstrate that every beat is (despite appearances) scripted and preordained.
And so the stage is set for a feat of virtuosity from the former child magician – but also some reveal of why this frantic mode of presentation is right for the story Sharp has to tell. Is it to do with his generation’s habit of double-screening their entertainment? He hints it might be, then moves on. What we get instead is the coming-out story of this southerner turned New Yorker, which involves his mother’s terminal cancer and, obliquely, his own watery near-death experience a few years ago.
