Robert Tanitch reviews David Baddeil at Vaudeville Theatre, London WC2
David Baddeil, the comedian and novelist, has written a one-man show, My Family: Not the Sitcom, in which he talks about his mother’s colourful sex life and his father’s dementia. His candour is breathtaking.
His fellow comedians have commented on the show on twitter and praised his bravery, his hilarity and sadness and his emotional honesty. Their tweets are reproduced on the flier and in the programme.
Mum is dead. Dad is still alive. Dad suffers from Pick’s Disease whose symptoms include impaired regulation of social conduct, breaches of etiquette, vulgar language, tactlessness and disinhibition. At his wife’s funeral Dad makes a pass at a number of women attending the wake.
Baddeil’s performance is his way to exorcise his grieving. Laughter is, he says, the only medicine. The script is the sort of thing he might have said at his mother’s funeral but didn’t for fear of causing offence.
Some people may feel he has crossed the line and said things which might have been best left unsaid. But Baddeil is interested only in truth which he feels has no boundaries.
He reads some of his mother’s erotic verses, tweets and emails to her lover (which she forwarded to her sons!) and recalls as a teenager, sleeping in the room next to his parents’ bedroom and hearing their very loud cries of ecstasy.
The performance is notable for its ease. He could be talking in our living rooms or regaling us with stories over the dinner table. The comedy and sadness is far removed from stand-up
One alarming story he tells is the way an off-the-cuff remark on dementia to a reporter is exaggerated and he finds the press saying that he, at 51, is afraid of the onset of dementia.
From what Baddeil tells us about his mother, I think it is pretty safe to say she would enjoy his one-man show enormously and would certainly join in the Q&A finale
To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website
