Created in collaboration with Scott Gooding, and presented by Vicious Fish Theatre, Who, Me marks Rob Lloyd’s New Zealand debut at the NZ International Comedy Festival 2013. 

Who, Me sits somewhere between classic stand-up and theatrical performance.  It is a one-man show that includes a wealth of chortling moments, and employs Rob Lloyd’s considerable talents as an actor, storyteller, comedian, MC and even dancer. 

To start, we cheer wildly when Lloyd appears because he looks – by golly – like that actor who played the Tenth Doctor in the Dr Who series.  We spend the first several minutes gawking greedily with a kind of freak show fascination.  

Rob Lloyd embraces this phenomenon, utilising his unabashed passion and dizzying knowledge of all things Whovian, to strip away The Doctor and reveal himself as Rob Lloyd.  It is cleverly done, and one which delivers in abundance to Dr Who fans. 

The hit TV series is put on trial to determine whether Lloyd’s fixation with Dr Who has ruined or enriched his life.  An obsession he carefully catalogues among Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Jurassic Park and Sherlock Holmes.

As audience, we are assigned the role of Jury, and Lloyd weaves us into his world using classic audience participation; not that kind of audience participation that can have you cringing but good healthy stuff that is a little bit silly and a great deal of fun. 

Lloyd executes his part with feeling, charm, confidence and mercurial energy, firing off in-jokes that have our brains racing to pinpoint the reference, supported by lighting and sound that seamlessly hit every cue. 

Minute-by-minute, Lloyd “kills” The Doctor (who ironically he accuses, at one point, of genocide) as we travel the course of his life from awkward teen to struggling schoolteacher, until we are left staring at the man known as Rob Lloyd.  Revealing that while on the outside he may simply appear to be a “Dr Who look-alike,” there is so much more on the inside.  By the end, we’re a little less awestruck, but can’t help but like this bright and eclectic man. 

I am hanging out somewhat for Lloyd to describe the moment when he realised that the TV show produced a Doctor who looked like him.  What was it like, I wonder, to encounter your favourite cultural icon and realise that… wow, is that… me?  Did he feel that he had absorbed Dr Who so much into his soul that he had somehow bent the universe to his will? 

It also would have been nice for the audience to have the final vote.  As Jury, it seemed fitting that our concluding participation would have been to cast the determination – guilty or not guilty; a further payoff for us, regardless of its outcome, to feel that the end is not yet fixed, and that we may yet impact the course of Time.  Lloyd casts his own conclusion, which I won’t reveal (spoilers).

The show’s comic moments are slick and clean. On occasion it may feel a little rehearsed, but there are plenty of fresh responses from and to the audience to keep us feeling we are witnessing something that will happen just once in all of Time and Space. 

Dr Who fans will unquestionably love Who, Me.  It’s their night.  They guffaw and grin at every Whovian reference.  But even if you don’t know much about Dr Who, you’ll still enjoy yourself.  It’s sharp, engaging and clever.  It’s certainly worth seeing.

Afterwards I wander warm and glowing into the cool autumn night, and sing the Dr Who theme tune on the way home.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer