Jamaine Ross is a funny-looking, shit-talking young guy with a crazy beard, superhero t-shirt, jeans, chucks and a baseball cap.  At 31 he’s well past his childhood, yet he clearly still loves all the things he enjoyed growing up, and fair enough.  He’s from Christchurch, lives in Auckland and has a wife who’s too good for him. 

An A2 sized sketchpad on an easel bears the brazen title, and I’m intrigued as to what use is to be made of this prop.  Jamaine’s hard case self-effacing introductory ramble belies a sensitive, educated boy-man with a lot to say about nothing much.  Still somewhat naïve performance-wise, his jocular grin and infectious chuckle resemble Billy T’s hillbilly nephew. 

Ostensibly for comic purposes, Ross has a bit of a chip on his shoulder concerning a certain other, more famous local comedy legend with the same Christian name.  Repeatedly referring back to it as a means of bookending his rambling assortment of routines, it seems courageously lame to have based an entire running thread on such a well-known namesake.  (I note that, despite the different spelling, Jamaine still pronounces his own name with an ‘er’ in the first syllable).

Ross’s character, while quietly knowledgeable, is not exactly authoritative.  He appears to be delightedly surprised with the success of his experiments in getting the audience to recite words and songs.  The utility of the sketchpad prop is compromised by his having written each name, word and what have you every four pages and having to count them out, resulting in timing issues and half a paragraph of review.

Jamaine indulges a little too much for my liking in the comic pitfall of providing a running commentary and analysis of how it feels like his material is working out. Now and then he completely fudges his own jokes, managing to extract some comedy mileage from it although once or twice he seems to be the most amused by his own clumsiness. 

In fact, during his Auckland opening finale he literally fell on his face, subsequently remarking that he hopes any reviewers don’t mention that because then people will go expecting it to happen again… It’s feasible if he retains this loose, chaotic approach it just might, but don’t expect it because it’s allegedly not in the script. 

Altogether the show is a sloppy one, but there’s enough clever parts and likeable, if self-conscious, cheek that it’s impossible not to laugh some of the time. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer