Stand Up at The Leyton Star featuring Abandoman

As promoting goes this was an easy night. I put tickets online for this months ago and when preparing to send out the usual listings I thought I better check if any had been sold.

They had sold out.

So for the first time ever I had to play down this show for fear of having a queue of disappointed people. Though probably a smart move this did lead to the curious situation where 5 seats remained unfilled all night even though they'd been paid for. Money in the bank....but what a waste!

The show itself was magnificent by any standard. I flipped the room so the seats faced the TV screen at the back to enable Rob Broderick (of Abandoman fame) to use it for his backing videos and squeezed just enough chairs in. This did mean some chairs ended up of the stage so in the second half my girlfriend and I were elevated like some kind of emperor and his queen watching from the royal box. It also made a good platform to film from - if I'd remembered to turn my camera on. Doh.

The first half was more than solid - I opened with Selfie Stick then passed the baton on to Maddie Campion. Following her, Lucas Jolson managed to use unknown powers to make the microphone descend into white noise and distortion and performed without to a strong reception. Working once again, I passed the mic over to Sonia Aste who injected a seismic dose of energy to the proceedings - only topped by Lenny Sherman completely smashing the show with the crowd in constant stitches. I rounded things off with a well received rendition of West End and we broke for the interval.

The second half was a master class in musical comedy. Testing out new song after new song: Rob's set was tight, interactive, playful and delivered with razor sharp timing. The music videos accompanying each track brought things to a new level and the show ran for a record-breaking 70 minutes. The various lines about how you know you might be "Moderately Successful" are still with me now.

Post-show it was time for drinks at the bar and a chat with Rob and the audience members. It turned out three Irish guys had come after being given the tickets by "some guy we hardly knew" in a pub the weekend before. They seemed more than happy to have taken a punt. 

Should you be in Edinburgh this summer definitely track down Rob's show:
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/abandoman-s-rob-broderick-the-musical-in-my-mind