Justin Moorhouse - Who’s the Daddy?

Published Wednesday 22 August 2007 at 12:05 by Jeremy Austin

While Justin Moorhouse is an energetic, fast-paced performer, he needs to take care this does not over-emphasise the bitterness that fuels part of his set.

It isn’t always a good idea to theme a set if the performer seems self-conscious in so doing. And here he does.

Moorhouse themes his show about his experiences of fatherhood, a difficult subject to adequately turn into original comedy at the best of times, but made more difficult when the underlying issues are forced a little too hard.

He tells the audience his dad left when he was four and fails to take this on into a gag. It leaves the audience feeling a little awkward and he seems to respond to this by going for cheap laughs by criticising his ex-wife.

Calling her an ‘old boot’ once or twice can be funny, and gets a laugh, but faced with a difficult audience his keeps coming back to it, telling the gags with a nervous energy that makes him come across like a misogynistic old school comedian.

Moorhouse is anything but this. When on form he is a lightening quick performer who mixes heart with humour. When he later talks about his current partner and their child, it is done so with exactly this quality and it is refreshing.

It is a skill to go from 20 minutes in a club to an hour show based around a theme and while some nights Moorhouse is achieving this, on the night of the review, faced with a tough crowd he was off the pace. And that’s the difference between the good and the great.