The Man Who Couldn't Deliver: delivers a one-note wonder

The actor who portrays the titular character of this one-man show – he isn't introduced anywhere as the performer but I'm guessing either Jeff McMahan or Chris Cook, the two guys credited with 'created by' in the Fringe guide – is a charming, confident and comfortable performer.

He's simply a likeable fellow, the kind of guy you'd love to have at a dinner party because you know he'd bring beer and keep everyone laughing. It's from this natural affability that the comic irony is mined in the piece, which could easily be subtitled Portrait of a Self-Absorbed Asshole. It's a 60 minute comedic meditation on men who can't get over themselves enough to treat those around them with anything resembling compassion, but the whole thing remains sketch-deep.

Now, it's a pretty good piece of sketch comedy, of the kind that's been keeping SNL afloat for years. And therein lies the problem: it's five minutes of funny drawn out to a full hour. We get after the first scene that this guy is an caricature of the male id, and everything thereafter just keeps playing the same note; the seemingly sweet guy unaware of his own callous bigotries. It's held together by a loose narrative revolving around his relationship with his young son after the mother abandons them both, which is constructed more to provide situations to show how bad he is at being a human being than it is a plot, really. Fortunately, in the realm of sketch comedy plot is entirely beside the point. 

The Man Who Couldn't Deliver feels kind of like getting stuck next to the biggest dick at the bar whose attitude and opinions are so painful you want to move down a few stools, except that here you get to laugh in his face. Which a good portion of the audience did, loudly and with relish. It would be great to see this Man as a component of a larger sketch show, and to see this actor bring his charms to other characters. The starving world of sketch comedy needs more comedians that can act.

For showtime information go here.

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