I’m on a tall stool at the Cavern Club. I’m here to see The Power to Change your Mind and judging by that title, I reckon I’m in for a tall story.  

Sure enough. “I’m here to help you to change your mind,” intones Kim Potter, aka Vinyl Burns, all American accent and horrible teeth.

If anything in this world deserves sending up it’s motivational speaking. I imagine most of the audience have suffered through a typical harangue.

“I used to be just like you” – why are we laughing? “You need to commit now.”

Well, we’re committed to being highly entertained. Burns calls on all the persuasive tricks in the book and twists them with deliciously malevolent intent. “Do something now, later, or not at all. Just don’t do them all at once.”

His patter is punctuated with pauses and open-handed gestures appealing to our need to listen and take note. The language and assumptions that underlie so-called motivational speaking take a real and hilarious beating.

Pronouncements border on the biblical. We’re getting a knowledge reset – we’ll never not know so much again.

As audience, we’re raptly attentive – no motivational speaker could ask for more. I don’t know how many Burns studied to create his sermon – maybe only one would have been enough!

Reviews aren’t supposed to be motivational – but you’d hardly do better than Burns for 40 minutes worth of laughs. Oh, unless you’d prefer to take the 16-step online programme…

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