Oxford Playhouse, Fri May 4th 2007

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Lita Doolan May 6, 2007

John Hegley has the ability to take every day events and describe them in deeply poignant and hilarious poems that offer entertainment for all ages when performed live.  On the ‘Uncut Confetti’ tour we get new material as well as requested favourites such as ‘Rowena’ and ‘Brother-in-Law’ (who puts the dirty sheets back on the spare bed when guests are staying the night).  Innovative audience participation includes one bright spark translating the French ‘Poem de Terre’ and another chap offering a solo section to our community singing.  

Hegley asks us what is so special about special effects, if there is no need to use the imagination?  Swiftly and successfully this multi-talented artist has us believing he is a bee (‘the glasses help!) even though he is wearing pink.  We join in with more make believe by standing up and ‘tramping’ which I learn is the term for hiking in New Zealand. Hegley’s love for words is infectious and at once we all become obsessed with saying the word ‘Bargain’ out loud.

Everyone takes part in the fun as the show is such a joy to be part of. Sharp stand-up comedy is slotted between self-accompanied songs as Hegley gently nudges us to be more tolerant of the annoying habits of others.  The roof gets raised as we sing ‘What are we going to do about Granddad’s glasses?’  The answer is to donate them to Zanzibar or the ‘Blurred world’. But the piece de resistance is saved for the encore.  We only come close to letting the highly talented Mr Hegley leave the stage after hearing about his boyhood experiences in a ‘Luton Bungalow’.

This was an undiluted delight. John Hegley was with us for about an hour and a quarter, and was thoroughly in charge of proceedings from start to finish. No-one was safe. Late-comers, sweet rustlers and uncoordinated clappers were all subjected to his acerbic and merciless wit, the house lights being raised at Hegley’s command to help him pin-point the perpetrators. Dry, yet sweet, like a fine sherry, he was clinical, but never unkind, which is not the easiest trick to pull off.

In fact, he goes to some lengths to obscure the fact that he’s a really nice and thoughtful person beneath his “terminally anti-social” veneer, allowing just glimpses of his mushy underbelly which are all the more effective for being infrequent.

The facts: several songs, including “Eddie Don’t Like Furniture” and “Luton Bungalow”, many many poems, half read from books, half adapted for the occasion, (he added the word bum-face to one poem and offered to write it into any books purchased afterwards “for a quid”) and terrifying amounts of audience participation.

And it was all very representative of his splendid general output. Well observed, pedantic, rambling verse with wonderful rhymes and non-rhymes and little poignant moments. Dogs and glasses and football.

See him if you get the chance. It will undoubtedly make you happy.

Ian Threadgill & Rebecca Barr 4 May 2007

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