[2013032] Nick Fischer’s I’ve come to clean the pool: The tale of how one man against all odds was able to get fired from most of the jobs he has ever worked
Nick Fischer @ Gluttony – The Pig Pen
5:45pm, Wed 20 Feb 2013
A little bit more about me: post-University, I’ve only held two real jobs, and they’ve both involved working with largely the same core group of people; I’ve also managed to be fired once in that time amidst a curious series of events. I realise that the idea of being fired typically fills people full of dread, but my firing came from out of nowhere and ended up being one of the most liberating times of my life.
So the incredibly verbose title to Nick Fischer’s show had me primed for forty-five minutes of mirth: I was expecting a plethora of sacking stories with humorous tweaks, with maybe some pool-cleaning thrown in. But when Fischer appeared, he was young – way too young, I thought, to have any significant tales from the trenches. And my heart sank a little as he opened with a series of soft jokes about living at home with his Mum…
…but then came the career “highlights”, beginning with his dismissal of Uni and then progressing from math tutoring to bartending at exclusive clubs. He doesn’t skimp the social impact of his various roles, either, as he moves out of home, starts living the highlife, before discovering that his lifestyle far exceeded his pay-packet and that some house-mates… well, weren’t.
Fischer’s style is friendly, without veering into “conversational”, and there’s few stumbles in his delivery despite his constant references to his notebook. And that notebook actually became a distinct point of interest as he describes how its contents caused more workplace friction in another (or was it his most recent? or even current?) job; and associated with that story comes all the insecurities that drive the rest of the show.
Whilst it wasn’t a laugh-a-minute performance, there were enough chortles in I’ve come to clean the pool to justify the performance; and, better still, there were some quirky laughs and turns of phrase that marked Nick Fischer as a performer to watch in the future. Chatting with him several times after the show reinforced the perception of a genuine and likeable guy; here’s hoping he returns for another Fringe, with possibly a few more sackings under his belt.