Shane Mauss: Mating Season

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Shane Mauss is a nice guy, in many ways. In a certain light you can see a bit of Brad Pitt about him, or an amalgam of characters from One Tree Hill and The OC. These comparisons make the 50 minutes spent with him that much more entertaining. It's a pity that you may have to resort to playing 'spot the wholesome doppelgänger' to ride out some of the debut of Mauss (pronounced Moss), but needs must when the energy in the room is low.

There is a passage in the show, over half-way, where you feel that you have acclimatised to the pace of the routines from the Wisconsin-raised comic and that his charisma-neutral setting has geared up to something approximating an innately gentle charm. However, Mauss's tendency to over-egg his routines with (unfulfilled) anticipation comes back to bite him. Admirably Mating Season largely sticks to its theme of how humans and animals get together and how women are the boss. Unfortunately research done in front of nature programmes while on drugs does not make for the clearest or fittest of routines. Precious few killer lines evolve from a morass of sometimes slight, and sometimes obtuse, observations.

Back home in the US things seem to be moving along nicely for Mauss, although it is seven years since the HBO award mentioned on his poster. It is not impossible to see the promise behind this bland set, but it will take some teasing out if he is to make an impression internationally.