Patrick Monahan: Hug Me I Feel Good

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Let's be clear: there's very little substance in Patrick Monahan's hour. A rough estimate might put it at 50% froth, 48% frippery, and perhaps 2% of solid material. But if Monahan's show represents a victory of style over substance, it is certainly no pyrrhic win. For the Irish-Iranian comic is gifted with more than enough effervescent charm to fill a full show and still have people (myself included) queueing for free hugs at the end.

Ostensibly, the show is about six good deeds Monahan has recently undertaken. These are told in his usual, gently amusing storytelling style – complete with well-honed mic work and dramatic whispering. Six wee vignettes in an hour. Easy, you'd think? But by story six, there's about three minutes left to whizz through it because, really, the stories themselves are secondary to Monahan's audience engagement. He chats to them; he dances with them; he invites them up for games. There are hugs, high fives and handshakes aplenty, all delivered with unlimited enthusiasm and infectious positivity. At times it's a little shambolic, the lack of real substance making any sort of structure an absolute impossibilty. But if there's a performer who can charm their way through dead space, it's Monahan.

It is perhaps no surprise that the hour ends with a participatory game loosely based around the long-running Forsyth vehicle, Play Your Cards Right. He's surely angling for a Saturday night TV slot and, with absolutely no snide, negative connotations, the man deserves one.