Liverpool Sound and Vision 7/10

Comedy is truly subjective; it is perhaps the one art form that can divide a room quicker than a partitioned wall. In some cases what makes you laugh can have your friend seething or wriggling uncomfortably as if they are attempting to go through customs with every illegal purchase placed in the most delicate of places.

For David Mills, a first time performer at the superbly adept and run Homotopia, the jokes and observances are well placed, they even have the adherence of finely tuned comic execution running through them, it’s just that at times even the hard of hearing can hear the sweat crawl down the neck of the suitably embarrassed as if a snail had suddenly mastered the art of roller skating over razor blades.

The Unity Theatre audience certainly gave David Mills’ Gimme Some Sugar the respect it was built upon and whereas there was certainly laughter in the appropriate places, it was perhaps the unexpectedly inappropriate or the inopportune dalliances from the London resident that caught people off guard to the point of being uncomfortable.

Jokes concerning fashion shoots hit the mark, keenly delivered film discussions also were a highlight but other moments were lost in the silence.

The genius of the performance though came towards its end. As the light noticeably grew darker, as the shadows fell heavily leaving only the man and the safety of the stool lit up, the caustic barbs and wit were shown for what they were, a man opening his thoughts to all, no matter the risk of something going awry but also one in which the observer could only surmise was a comic, like all good comics, one who just needed that biggest of hugs and to be told, “We know, you didn’t mean half of what you said.”

Like the proverbial Marmite, you can either love David Mills comedy or you can turn your back on him and leave the observances to others.

Ian D. Hall