[2015048] Adam Knox – Listen Closely, We Haven’t Much Time
Adam Knox @ Producers Cranny
10:00pm, Thu 19 Feb 2015
The same friend that had recommended Marcus Ryan had also urged me to catch Adam Knox’s last Adelaide show; this seemed like a great idea when I was planning, but – after tickets had been bought & the aforementioned shocker had been seen – I was feeling a bit… well, less-than-confident.
There’s not much of a crowd in, and – based on the other young comedians in the room, usually a good sign of comps on offer – I suspect that there weren’t that many tickets sold. And Knox – who is chirpy and affable, despite recognising the loss he’s probably making on the room – opens up with some friendly banter, before taking a dark turn into the description of his mugging on Hindley Street (or was it a mugging?).
Knox has a battery of jokes in his arsenal, usually based on short half-stories, and he has a knack of creating expectation with his delivery… but what he lacks is polish. There’s little in the way of segues between his jokes – unless you count references to his notebook – and some of his stories drift off into nothingness; his closing joke (involving a friend at an abortion clinic) had a great build-up and had me keenly anticipating the punch, but the final line lacked the impact that it needed to comfortably close the show off. And that, unfortunately, had me leaving the venue unsatisfied.
But let me give credit where credit’s due: Knox is certainly capable of writing a good joke… or even a heap of great jokes. But he appears to be unwilling to string them together in any structured way… and that just makes the whole show feel lazy.
(48) Adam Knox – Listen Closely, We Haven't Much Time: Solid material that could benefit from a little more structure. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 19, 2015