Jake Donaldson delivers a hilarious hour of entertaining and at times informative comedy in his stand-up show Spectacle. Donaldson is partially sighted, meaning he sees things, in his words, ‘like a memory’. He has a picture, but it’s blurry round the edges.
Donaldson uses his disability as a starting point for some truly brilliant humour. Most notably, there’s an ‘audio description’ recording that plays on and off throughout the show. Beginning as a simple description of Donaldson’s movements around the venue, the ‘voice’ soon goes off-piste, insulting both his appearance and his routine. I don’t want to give anything away, but the audio description even allows for a closing twist that made several members of the audience gasp (myself included).
I had an enormous grin on my face the whole time, as Donaldson seamlessly wove between hilarious stories, ranging from his first time going to a sport camp for blind children to his attempts to learn how to ride a motorbike. While it never quite reached the level of hilarity where you stop being able to breathe, I laughed regularly along with the rest of the audience. It was safe to say we were all thoroughly enjoying ourselves.
By far the best aspect of the show was the way in which Donaldson managed to inform the audience about the realities of living with a sight disability without once losing his smile. It would be very easy to fall into the trap of making several jokes, before saying something serious and disrupting the flow of the performance. Donaldson, however, was able to convey the severity of some of his topics whilst keeping the jokes flowing. In one particularly powerful moment, he turns off the lights, allowing the audience to experience his comedy in the way visually impaired people might. While I normally find turning out the lights in a show to be cheap way of creating an atmosphere, it worked well here because Donaldson had so expertly built his discussion of sight-related disabilities into the show. The lights turning off felt not only earned, but the only possible next step in the performance.
In Spectacle, Donaldson has crafted a wonderful hour of entertaining and insightful comedy that will leave you not only with a smile on your face, but more aware of the challenges visually impaired people go through. The show is running until the 25th of August (with a day off on the 12th) at 18:40 at the Mash House, Just the Attic. I highly recommend you check it out. Donaldson won’t disappoint.
Reviewer: Ben Pearson
Reviewed: 10th August 2024
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 4 out of 5.
