Comedy
by Scott Dooley
Casa Mondo, the Pleasure Garden
3 stars
Review by Rhys Tarling

Though Scott Dooley’s act didn’t elicit much from me than a few chuckles and the occasional appreciative grin, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from seeing his act. The venue was crowded yet was intimate as any campfire–if he bombed, we all would’ve felt that, and to his credit, Dooley kept his act going at a brisk pace with rapid fire jokes, managing to wring something new and clever from the most tired of topics: a feat in itself. He covered the darker side of life, touching on loneliness, drugs, breakups and dating, but often, he skirted uncomfortably skirted close to a pit of sadness. Thankfully, he usually didn’t linger on one thing for too long.

Playing the part of the neurotic guy flailing through various amusing misadventures involving drugs or sex (or both), earning enough affability that you found yourself hoping his next joke would do something more for you than his previous joke. Dooley always entertaining to watch as he gestures wildly, seeming either utterly bewildered or delighted.

However, ‘wring’ is the key word here, it’s Dooley’s best and worst feature. Despite the aforementioned finding new facets in old subject matter, he would, more often than not, run a fairly pedestrian observation into the ground until there was nary a cricket reacting. One example that springs to mind was when he was recounting how a female friend, who wrote a piece on rape culture, was hit on by a guy who boasted that he “never raped anybody.” The punchline never arrived and he stuck with this topic for about two minutes; unfortunately it felt more like a rant than anything and that’s a shame, because it can’t be too hard to find a great joke at the expense of a dipshit who would brag about never raping anyone.

At the end of his set he mused about his long distance relationship and dutifully plugged his new DVD. I get that he’s happy he found someone and the guy’s gotta eat–but leave ‘em wanting more next time.  Two and a half stars.

Eva runs from the 26th to the 29th of January. Tickets here.