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.
Do these two shows satisfyingly unite into a coherent whole? Sharp throws himself at that challenge, roping in Schrödinger’s cat and quantum immortality theory to undergird his exploration of being alive and dead (or on stage and on screen) all at the same time. In a show forever alert to its own status as confessional performance (“theatre with an r-e,” in his words), he also admits that all this tech whizzery is designed to conceal the cliche of talking parental bereavement and queer self-discovery on stage.
For me, the constant underscoring, echoing and backchat on screen distracts from – keeps at a distance, even – what’s most meaningful about Sharp’s story. But that tale still packs a considerable punch, and its teller is an endearing presence throughout. There are solid stand-alone standup bits (about urban umbrella usage and a “weenie massage”), amusingly arch Gen-Z stylings and an affecting tenderness towards his mum and dad. And if the PowerPoint gimmick and emotional rites-of-passage can feel as if they’re pulling in different directions – well, the combination (super-slick slideshow theatrics, big laughs and heart-on-a-stick story to boot) still represent pretty big bang for your buck.
