Eric
According to the program, Eric was originally to be a character comedy piece. Employing the services of an army of respected writers and a Director in the form of experienced sketch performer Scott Brennan, the show was transformed into a one man sketch show performed by Scott Gooding.
With high pedigree writers on the team, Scott had some brilliant material to work with but with so many voices there was also the risk of not all the sketches being to everyone’s taste. The short length of each piece combined with the rather rapid pacing of the show ensured that interest rarely waned. Although some of the sketches were quite subtle and only earned titters, most were hilarious.
The sketches themselves were twisted takes on the minutiae of modern life. They called upon Scott to play some rather bizarre and grotesque characters. Often the scenes had a very dark undercurrent and weren’t afraid to get controversial. Some ended in a hilariously abrupt manner, a violent outburst or an additional little punchline after the main joke. There were quite a few recurring sketches that progressively got stranger and darker as the show went along. Pop culture references added some unexpected twists to sketches, leading them into surreal directions and offering witty parallels to the theme.
Every trick in the book was used to prevent this show from being just a series of monologues. Scott conversed with unseen people off stage, reacted to voice overs, spoke on phone and dictaphone, and even adopted different accents to portray multiple characters that shared the stage. All were employed with confidence and were effective in bringing the scenes to life. Lighting and sound played a large role in setting the moods and he worked well with the cues.
Scott was a very physical performer and considering he was the only one on the stage, he needed to add maximum colour and movement. Looking like he had just got home from the office dressed in a suit, he worked with a rather bare stage and he made effective use of the simplest of props and costuming to inhabit the characters. There were a couple of elaborate props and set dressing that were bizarrely used only once; a considerable effort for a single joke. His mannerisms were sufficient enough to make each person unique although his vocal work did make a number of them sound a little too much alike.
Eric was a fantastic sketch show that proved that you don’t need an large ensemble cast to make sketch humour work.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.