Rich Potter’s God! The One-Man Show is a bit of a jumble of stand-up, magic, and clown – all of which are fun and enjoyable types of performance, but when combined in this production it somehow falls a bit flat.
God is about to create the universe (not this one, he just gets bored sometimes and makes new universes). He chats with the audience, and tries to get us to appreciate the his isolation, and the frustration that every time he makes a new universe Kim Kardashian inevitably shows up on the scene. The ‘creator’ schtick also leads to amusing fairground magic of the ball-and-cups variety, with the planets being created out of seemingly thin air (tailoring each ball to its respective planet aesthetically is a nice touch, with Jupiter being a large orange). He directs Adam and Eve to express their love for each other through a clown-inspired version of the classic improv game “Director”, and even if the audience participants can be a little reticent to go for the big emotions, his leading by example is the main attraction for this section (be warned, there’s a good amount of audience participation in this show).
When all of these elements are combined though, the whole feels like the sum of it parts and not much more. The through-line of nothing to creating the planets to Adam and Eve follows the creation narrative pretty well, but when it comes to the theatrical styles that Potter uses in each segment, the connections are not as clear. Stand-up to vaudeville-style magician to clown is less of an obvious progression, especially when the transitions between segments largely involves onstage costume changes tailored towards whichever performance style the next segment uses (though his carnival barker outfit for the magic section is pretty good, as is the French New Wave film director ensemble for the clown portion). Though each segment is amusing enough on its own (the highlight really is the magic portion), they each occur in succession without much reason for each one to occur, beside loosely following the plot of Genesis.
God! The One-Man Show is probably the only self-described “quantum comedy” I have seen, though I’m still not sure what that means exactly. Rich Potter is a talented entertainer, but this show feels a little bit loose despite it.
Created and Performed by Rich Potter
At Studio Léonard-Beaulne (Venue 3)
Running Time: 60 minutes
Tuesday 13 June 9:00pm
Thursday 15 June 11:00pm
Friday 16 June 7:00pm
Sunday 18 June 6:30pm
God Speaks:
Just to be clear, this show,, as a “quantum comedy,” is designed as a series of vignettes held together by a theme and a loose narrative. There’s a book about God that follows the same format. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s a classic. 😉
Anyway, I feel bad that your focus on something that wasn’t there led you to not enjoy the show as much as everyone else in the audience.