From the marketing material, I went into Utopia expecting character comedy – something Stephen Colbert-ish: a guy who thinks he knows how to build Utopia but is really just an idiot. 

Instead, Adam Wright is an affable guy who uses a loose structure of bringing up issues and proposing non-solutions to riff on a variety of topics from economics (read: work) to entertainment (read: nostalgia for children’s TV and movies).  For a structure based around a satirical political work, the show is determinedly non-political. 

All in all, it is a well-shaped, smooth set.  Some of the night’s humour is accidental – Wright’s boss is in the audience, and the jokes about work take on a whole new – slightly desperate – angle.  I like it.  As someone else who has never, ever, ever used the office printer for show posters (I swear), I totally get that awkwardness of trying to prove you care about your day job without only caring about your day job. 

And Wright handles the crowd with ease, taking on board our reactions and turning them into the next joke.  Wright also has a good ear for accents, and they pepper the set adding some great definition to what could be really straight-up-and-down characters.

The more personal the connection, the more I like the show.  Some of the best later material comes from imagining what Hollywood would do to a beloved TV show from Wright’s childhood.  There is also a gold mine of material in Wright recounting his learning curve of the comedy circuit, and the oddly flattering nature of hyperbolic criticism.

There are gestures to a larger scope or awareness here, but for me, that wasn’t the highlight or focus of the night. Instead, it is Wright’s ability to structure his own experience and open it up to us that kept me grinning and giggling for much of the show.

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