Review by Cath Edwards
What a delight this show was! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and so did the appreciative audience.
Brendan is an accomplished performer and he does the hardest thing: he makes it look easy. From the start, he established a cheerful rapport with the crowd, drawing us in with his warmth and wit. He introduced each poem or song with an anecdote from his own life, every vignette beautifully told with not a wasted word and yet with a perfect pacing that made us feel as if we had all the time in the world.
His poems, on the surface gently comic, often include social commentary and a wry nostalgia. He spoke of moving to a tower block with his family as a child, and observed that the overcrowding that these new homes were meant to alleviate was merely rendered vertical rather than horizontal. He gave a poignant description of looking down from the flat’s window to see children playing below; children flocking to the Tonibell ice cream van, while he could only watch. This is but one example of many.
Brendan’s songs are similarly warm-hearted and thought-provoking, with the addition of some nifty fingerpicking on his Martin acoustic. While his work is entertaining and often amusing, it’s notable that he is an accomplished wordsmith, using rhythm and internal rhymes to express and support his meaning in a richly textured way.
A few highlights, of many:
‘I went all health and wellbeing but I still couldn’t pronounce quinoa’
He compared the product of a chip van to: ‘Cholesterol-coated arteries turned inside out’
And, in a more lyrical moment: ‘Summer butterflies would fill the air in rainbow flurries.’
It was the first time I had seen Brendan perform. It won’t be the last. Go and see him, buy his books. You won’t be disappointed!
Cath Edwards