BONUS REVIEW - Deranged Dating

Her odds are good, but the goods are a little odd. Shirley Kirchmann is 35 and single. In Deranged Dating, she uses stand-up and caricature styles to tell us of her strange experiences in the dating world.  

 

The show seems to be split into two segments. The first half has Shirley speaking directly with the audience, interspersed with moments of stand-up comedy. She has an easy stage presence and I was instantly drawn into her insights on the need for GPS for everything and the ways that fairy tales have ruined our relationship expectations. The audience and I found it quite funny, and I appreciate that it came across as an honest look at moments that we can all relate to. 

 

At the mid-way point, the matchmaker character came out and it marked a change in style for the rest of the show. It jarred with everything that had been established, transitioning from the feeling of personable accessibility to one of distance and cliché. It is significant because the laughs were few and far between from this point forward.

 

After the matchmaker, we see very short snapshots of a great many strange dates that Shirley’s been on. It may have been the technical difficulties that plagued this first performance that led me to feel there were far too many blackouts and music cues. It had meant to feel like a well-timed dance but it simply made everything disconcertingly choppy.

 

In the end, this show left me with the impression that Shirley’s lack of success in the dating world boils down to her being far more interesting than any of the characters she meets.