There is nothing as nerve-wracking as trying out new comedy material on an audience for the first time. Successful comedy is such a reciprocal thing’audiences are so unpredictable and timing is everything.
Cameron Marshall’s stand-up show Kiss Chasey opened to a quiet reception, but there is certainly room to grow and develop this little tale of one man’s lengthy dating history. Marshall is undeniably pleasant and personable on stage, but his comic persona lacks clarity and individuality. The audience was unsure whether to laugh with him at his ‘exes’, or at him for his excesses. Indeed, the inclusion of some cute and funny multimedia interviews with the ladies in question added to this instability in comic focus.
Marshall seemed to be trying a bit of everything: some deadpan; some self-satirising; some minor racial/sexual shock value; and, some avuncular punning. Unfortunately, this leads to overall unevenness. The gentle personal narrative is not excessive and fictionalised enough to be laugh-out-loud funny or spontaneous and detailed enough to have rhythm and style. There’s great potential in ‘X’ jokes and the premise of the show’s title, which simply didn’t go anywhere.
The strongest material was Marshall’s moments of improv: his jokes about the little tech issues, the patron who exited with the mobile phone, and the audience reception. Hopefully for subsequent performances, Marshall will be more comfortable with his material and his audience, and go with the charming spontaneity for which he obviously has flair. Rather than trying to re-inflate flat old puns.