Just as the Wellington winter starts to nip at our cheeks, the NZ International(?) Comedy Festival gives us an excuse to get out into our beloved city. One Tuesday night, Man in Crowd by Mike Fowler was that excuse. It was nice to settle into the mostly full Cavern Club for some comedy.

Fowler bustles in and begins his set with a confidence that endures the entire show. He proceeds to explain that, partly though the lockdown, partly though the break-up of a six-year relationship, he did some personal growth. This is meant to be the narrative throughout the show but gets lost as he prioritises one-liners. Fowler brushes over big issues without deep diving into them and instead has a lot of jokes about masturbation, the male sex organ and a few too many punching down jokes.

The show is mostly about re-entering the dating scene in your thirties, being in your thirties and, at the very end, Schadenfreude. Fowler has some interesting perspectives, definitely on the more risqué end of the comedy spectrum – was Jesus the first capitalist? – but the string which ties all the ideas together is tenuous.

Despite the typically quiet Kiwi audience, the audience is with Fowler and he gets some good laughs out of us, me included. The PowerPoint presentation is mostly screenshots of former Facebook statuses; if you’re going to use PowerPoint, go all out or don’t do it at all. It also acts as an anchor for Fowler, returning upstage like a big cat circling a cage, contradicting his confident performance.  

The show is meant to be about how Fowler found himself but I’m not sure I learn anything new about him or have any particular revelations about life. But maybe I’m not supposed to. Maybe I’m just meant to have a few laughs and not think about it too deeply. Am I disappointed at the lack of Michael Fowler Centre jokes? Of course. Was it a good show? Sure.

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