I was invited to Dan Leith: Defiling Gravity without really knowing anything about Dan or the show – or even having been in the West Port Oracle before. It was a great experience!
Vibe
The first shock I got was that I went downstairs in West Port Oracle, and found myself… on a plane! WHAT. I never knew this was here! It’s such a novelty thing for a venue to have, and I was delighted when I realised the recline function still works on the seats.
Then I was even more pleasantly surprised to learn that Dan had worked in the plane theme of the venue into his show – coincidence? I doubt it, but it’s brilliant. I was immediately entertained, and some of us were given in-flight cards, too. A few of them had instructions on them – mine just had ‘travel safe’ and a condom stuck to it! (No idea what I was supposed to do, if anything)
I settled into what was set to be an entertaining show of musical comedy.
The show itself
Dan has a lovely, engaging, friendly stage presence and you immediately feel at ease with him as he plays some songs and lets you get to know a bit more about him. Dude seems a little bit accident prone, as we hear about two accidents and a medical emergency in Iceland (the shop, not the country!). But the main thing is, he’s okay now and he’s an utter delight to watch on stage.
His songs are catchy, witty and funny – why had I never heard of Dan before? One song is based around one of the internet’s favourite things to take the piss out of at the moment, and that’s a ‘Karen’.
As soon as Dan launched into the song, I saw a couple getting a little bit closer with the woman getting some reassuring attention, and I instantly knew her name was Karen. Luckily, she took it in good humour.
There’s a nice bit of audience participation in the show, aided in part by the cards that Dan gave out at the start, but also later on with an optimisation vs pessimism song which got everyone involved and felt like a lovely way to end things – I definitely left the venue feeling more on the up than the down.
Overall
I had a great time at Dan Leith: Defiling Gravity, and will now be keeping an eye out for future Dan shows. I laughed, I cheered, and I really enjoyed the songs – they’re well-written, clever and funny. If you can make it along before end of Fringe, I highly recommend you do. Thanks, Dan!
Dan Leith: Defiling Gravity
Summary
A great hour of musical comedy from Dan Leith, with a slight plane theme that works really well downstairs in West Port Oracle. Witty, funny and highly entertaining.
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