Sometimes a show’s premise can tell you literally everything you need about a show, and yet you’re still surprised at the result.
That was certainly the case with Blizzard’s first preview of the year for “LAURA MONMOTH ATTEMPTS TO COMPLETE FOUR MARIO GAMES IN UNDER AN HOUR WHILST IAN LANE DISTRACTS HER WITH BOVINE ANECDOTES AND INSINCERE ENCOURAGEMENT (WORKING TITLE)”.
Laura Monmoth and Ian Lane are superb comedians and streamers. They have set themselves apart from most for their continued grinding at streaming and virtual multimedia shows despite the industry largely returning to more traditional live in person shows, and that very much carries over to their live shows.
We started with Ian and Laura each doing warm-up sets before the main event, because as you can probably tell from the title, it’s a bit out of the realm of the usual shows we put on.
Ian has a delightfully deadpan whimsey with his set, with very creative and surreal takes on mundane topics including eyebrows and a daily morning routine. It’s a bit of a cliché to say that he could read the phonebook and that would be funny – and I don’t think that necessarily applies here (apart from anything else, it might be doxxing). But Ian is a comic who can take pretty much any topic or idea and absolutely run with it and unpack it in a way no other comic has or could.
Intertwined with his set were a distinct PowerPoint featuring doodles and drawings to accompany the set, which enhanced the already brilliant set into an unforgettable comedy experience. God, I felt wanky writing that, but I stand by it.
Next up we had Laura, who brought her trademark manic PowerPoint set back to Blizzard in a snappier format, delighting in silliness, early 2010s internet culture, and bringing such an earnest playfulness to everything she did.
Laura is a performer who always looks like she’s having a great time on stage, even when self admittedly under prepared due to losing the memory stick with the show she’d planned on doing on. Whether she’s subtly improving hazard signs or reenacting the entirety of Bohemian Rhapsody with Facebook profiles, Laura is always a delight to watch and releases unmitigated joy into any space she’s performing in, virtual or in reality.
And then the main feature of the show started. From Ian’s first words of introduction, absolutely ruthless critique and review of Laura Monmoth as a speedrunner before the run even started, this was an unrepeatable just … moment that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a comedy club before.
If you’ve seen live speedruns before, I guess it’s closer to that (as that’s what it is). However, rather than a showcase of the ways games can be optimised and broken in order to complete them in the quickest possible time, this was a brilliant comedian getting intensely frustrated at an impossible-seeming challenge, another brilliant comedian understatedly roasting her every move, and going on tangents about how much he hates Barney Walsh every 10 minutes or so.
There’s so much going on in this show. It’s funnier than any speedrun attempt I’ve seen before, it’s unlike any comedy show I’ve seen before. Ian and Laura have such a brilliantly funny dynamic as they bounce off each other and Laura loses even more concentration trying to battle wits with Ian. Yet through all this if you are a fan of retro gaming is some genuinely impressive 2D Mario gameplay, made more complex by the fact the game keeps changing every 15-30 seconds and does not give any warning for Laura to react to.
If you’re into live comedy and have no real knowledge or appreciation of retro gaming and speedrunning, you’ll still enjoy these brilliant comic minds trading blows with each other. And if you’re a proper lil nerd who loves watching old games tackled in tense and stressful ways and the sport of the gamers trying to tackle them, this is a hugely entertaining sight to behold.
Laura unfortunately only managed to finish Mario 1 after the hour was up, no doubt in part to the brilliant distractions by Ian Lane, and also stopping to go to the loo at one point and letting someone in the audience take over gameplay for a while, and instead instructing rather than actively playing. But watching Ian call time and shut the emulator whilst so close to finishing the rest was a perfect climax to the show, and a great punchline to one of the oddest formats I’ve ever seen.
The title of this show really says it all. It’s exactly what it says on the tin, but nothing can prepare you for how it actually is to watch. There’s only so much I can put into words. Because of its setup no two performances will be alike, so all I can do is just urge you to go see it.
The performers are great and perfect for the roles they’re taking, whatever happens on the next time they do it, it will be unforgettable, you’ll get wrapped up in the sport of it, and you’ll cry laughing at the comedy dynamic of these two veterans.
What a show, a great turnout for how niche a premise it was, and everyone had a wonderful time.
We’ve got more shows coming up which you can book via OutSavvy here: https://www.outsavvy.com/organiser/blizzard-comedy and you can catch our livestream shows over on Twitch.tv/blizzardcomedy
