[2013051] Alan Sharp: Careful What You Wish For
Alan Sharp @ Gluttony – The Piglet
10:30pm, Sat 23 Feb 2013
Alan Sharp’s précis claims that he “spent the first half of his adult life as a model citizen and part of the corporate machine. Then, ten years ago, something happened which changed his life.” And, even though I knew nothing about Sharp, I felt compelled to find out what changed his life… if only for selfish reasons. Because, Festival Season excepted, I wouldn’t mind a life changing event to occur to me.
My first encounter with Sharp was as I scurried into Gluttony to see his show; the long-haired, mopey hobbit of a man was spruiking at the bottlenecked entrance, and when I assured him that I was indeed seeing his show, his eyes lit up briefly in happiness; then I mentioned that I was a pre-sale, and the sparkle died down a little. Regardless, there was a reasonable crowd in to see him that evening – The Piglet was maybe half full, which I’d have thought was reasonable for a relatively unknown UK comic.
When he takes to the stage, his manner is somewhat at odds with his presentation: with the black jeans and metal t-shirt and long hair, you’d expect someone a bit gruff… a bit harsh. But he comes across as quite gentle, and even at his most irritable there’s a sense of empathy in his observations; even with the darkest story, he manages to find the sweetness and light.
And that fits in well with his material, which spends a large amount of time dwelling on Sharp’s relatively conventional Scottish / English / Welsh upbringing, before moving on to his relatively conventional adult life. And it’s here that he hooks me: his path somewhat mirrored my own (though with much more success, I hasten to add) as he almost fell into a technical job – right place, right time – and progressed easily in his career. The expected life-changing twist isn’t really delivered with any real punch, however, and so the majority of the performance felt like more of an autobiographical recount of Sharp’s life so far, peppered with an occasional witticism that he’d encountered on the journey .
As a comedian, Alan Sharp lacks the high-octane rapid-fire laughs that others may provide; but as a raconteur, he’s a delight, with a friendly and open delivery. I found Careful What You Wish For to be a surprisingly uplifting and positive performance, and it kept me mightily entertained for its duration.