Jimeoin (The Nice Touch)
The Umbrella Revolution
Fri 9 March
until Sun 18 March


Trivial. Stupid. Pedantically small and insignificant. He said it from the start: if you're looking for comedy that makes you think, don't see Jimeoin. If you're looking to laugh until you hurt, then that's a different story - and you might even learn the ins-and-outs of eyebrow movement.

Essentially, Jimeoin presented an hour of heavy laughs about nothing. Still refining his set, Jimeoin meandered from joke to joke, got lost half way, went on a tangent, stopped and thought where he was, went back to a point he had five minutes ago, continued this way for sixty minutes and then the show was over. It was brilliant!

To be funny, seasoned professional stand-ups like Jimeoin don't need song and dance, lighting or theatrics... but he just can't help himself. What's even more hilarious is that the elaborate technical set-ups aren't really that funny, the laughs are more about Jimeoins subtle facials and body movements. He pulls off the little nuances with inexhaustible charm and poise. It's the combination of the inane observations and the brilliant physical acting (eg Irish dancing and no-lip smiling) that make him so great. Jimeoin was so amazingly relaxed that he bordered on lethargy - and this definitely worked to his advantage. He puts the energy in when the joke really needs it, and it seems his effort are just a natural flow-on. A bucket of laughs, typically Jimeoin, almost worth seeing just for the 'the show is over now' rock ending!

Steven Williams