Sitting through Pat Burtscher’s Overwhelmed, is like hanging out with a good mate who is adept at talking intelligent and amusing crap for an hour. His demeanor is friendly, if somewhat self-conscious and fidgety, and he engages his audience with what appears to be a stream of consciousness performance that alters each night and continues until the allotted time is up.
You’d be forgiven for thinking he was slightly drunk – what he says often smacks of the potentially world-changing ideas we sometimes think we’ve struck upon after a few too many beers – but he seems to have all his wits about him and some of the points he’s making are actually rather insightful.
The show’s title is apparently a summary of Pat’s feelings towards life, and it’s a feeling that’s not difficult to relate to in today’s world. His view is quite clearly left of centre and he’s not afraid to call people on attitudes and behaviour that he doesn’t agree with, or credit his audience with the ability to appreciate the logic of his arguments against such things.
While some bits fit the usual stand-up formula of “isn’t this thing weird” or “have you ever noticed this”, there are also many sections that are simply funny anecdotes or just general commentary of his thoughts on a topic. In many cases, it’s not actually the content of the stories that is funny but simply the way it’s told. While moments of hilarity were not frequent, there was a constant level of amusement and general enjoyment throughout the show and few segments failed to illicit appreciative laughter.
Kryztoff Rating: 3.5K
Recent Comments