Friday March 29, 2024
The Pool Guy - Comedy With Balls
Review

The Pool Guy - Comedy With Balls

By Damian Madden
April 2 2007

Trick-shot pool player Steve Daking’s show The Pool Guy: Comedy With Balls aims to bring the pool hall into the theatre, whether that is a good thing or not is up for debate.

The show begins with three audience members being invited to try and beat Daking at pool. Hence, the first twenty or thirty minutes are spent watching people of varying skill levels try and play pool, not exactly riveting theatre. Of course Daking wins all the games, even after giving his opponents some rather generous handicaps, which only increases the mundane nature of the show’s start.

Once the audience participation part is over the interesting part of the show begins with Daking attempting a series of trick-shots with varying degrees of difficulty. There is no doubting Daking’s skill, although not every shot works first time, he doesn’t shy away from tackling difficult shots, including potting a ball held in the mouth of an audience member. Where the show falls down is in Daking’s banter. Although he has an easy going nature and works well with an audience a lot of the jokes seem to be off the cuff and one wonders how much the show would be improved if it was delivered like a prepared stand-up routine.

There is no doubt that in the right setting The Pool Guy: Comedy With Balls would be a huge success. In a pub, club or RSL it would be an enjoyable night out; Daking’s comedy style, his flashing lights, tricks, audience participation and music (Tina Turner, the Mission Impossible theme etc) would work well. However, when presented in a theatre there is an expectation that the show is going to have a sense of the theatrical, that it will be structured and feature a touch of drama, this doesn’t. That isn’t to say that it is bad, it is just out of its element.

The Pool Guy - Comedy With Balls

You can hear an audio interview with Steve Daking in Episode 19 of StageCast.

 

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