Are you mad at him? Are you? Bryan Safi is stressed: he’s a people pleaser, and yes, he KNOWS he dresses like shit, and he WANTS to know if you’re mad at him. Here’s an hour of comedy and a Powerpoint explaining why…
Safi is a peculiar and perfect mix of confident and cowering: one minute he’s confessing his fear of making a return at Gap (lest the salesperson gets pissed off at him), the next he’s straddling an audience member whilst he serenades them, faces centimetres apart. It makes for a wonderfully entertaining hour of comedy — confusion — why is he singing? Is he going to cry? What’s going on? Where am I?
There’s not really a plot to Are You Mad at Me??, more of an energy; Safi is such a gifted and charismatic performer, that you feel such things as “scripts” and a “routine” would only limit him. He’s at his absolute best when riffing with the audience, or occasionally staring into the abyss of the McEwan Hall basement for about 10 seconds too long, mid-sentence.
There IS structure, regardless: Safi enlists a Powerpoint to illustrate everything that is wrong with him (style, sensuality, self-esteem) and uses it to the best of his ability. He’s a charming storyteller too, with a great anecdote involving a hook-up and The Little Mermaid’s ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’. It is, you guessed it, very unfortunate.
Overall, this is an impossible show to review and a wonderful hour of entertainment.
Bryan Safi: Are You Mad at Me?? is running until 25 August at Friesian Room at Underbelly, Bristo Square.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Robyn Von Swank, provided to The Student to use as press material.