Patrick Monahan: That 80s Show

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There's an unavoidable irony to be faced with any standup show that focuses on the 1980s while feeling it was written then too. That 80s Show is just that, with Patrick Monahan delivering material from, and on, a bygone era.

It's ostensibly a throwback to the decade of his childhood, as he recounts the biggest stories and trends of the time. The problem is that, but for a few segments on ladies' shoulderpads (weren't they silly, he notes), it's mostly him attempting to satirise all the different types of terrorism that emerged in that period. These sensitive topics are thumbed to pieces in his clumsy (and often obnoxious) comedic hands. It's a bit like watching a documentary on the Iraq war presented by Ant & Dec. 

When he's not deploying the cheeky chappy persona to ponder why "Arabs" took over from the IRA as the main international threat, the show is a mix of hackneyed observations about eighties hairstyles, forced chumminess with the audience, and drawn-out musical interludes where he's essentialy dancing as filler. The latter is actually the most natural and engaging thing in the show.

It's not even peurile, it's just creatively crass. The saving grace is his entertaining stage presence, which does get the crowds going, but it's all undermined by the trite remarks that sandwich the offensive ones. There's fun to be had with his showmanship, but as a standup act it more closely resembles an oddball uncle telling his nephews about the good old days.