Admission
Created by Jeremiah Ukponrefe
Produced by Punching Sideways Productions
60m
Content notes: 14+, sensory friendly
By Erin Murray
One of the most important things a stand up comedian needs to learn is how to read a room. But what are you supposed to do when your jokes don’t land but you have another 45 minutes of material prepared? You press on.
Jeremiah Ukponrefe is a young comedian who is just getting started in his career. He has a dynamic stage presence, great physicality, and has written enough jokes to fill an hour-long stand up show. That is not an easy task. And at the opening performance of his Fringe run, he showed us that he can also survive gracefully when his jokes don’t quite connect.
For much of the show, Upkonrefe was acting in the character of a smart ass edgelord. He was clearly trying to be “edgy” by telling jokes intended to shock and even disgust. He took shots at Anne Frank and Indigenous folks, and joked about keeping a girl locked in his basement—jokes which were not to the taste of everyone in the crowd. Not all of it was quite so inflammatory and there were definitely some laughs, but he struggled to match the audience’s tastes. There were a lot of crossed arms and grumpy faces, a comedian’s nightmare.
Personally, I struggled to connect with him because I felt the show lacked authenticity. He had written a lot of jokes which were fictional scenarios, so it was hard to tell what was true about him and his life, and what had been invented just for the sake of a good bit. So, when he started making jokes about his broken family and his depression, I was not sure if I could laugh along. An audience will gladly laugh with you, but are less likely to jump on board if they think we are laughing together at someone else. Or maybe that is just how we do it here in Ottawa.
Despite the lukewarm reception from the audience, he held it together for his entire performance and got through all his material. He relied heavily on crowd work as filler when one of his jokes didn’t land, but he didn’t antagonize the audience. His crowd work was actually quite personable, and was arguably the most entertaining part of the show. Some of the audience responses made me laugh the hardest of the night.
Towards the end of the performance, Jeremiah joked that he will be taking some of his jokes out for the next performance, and polishing the show as it runs. I think there is a lot of potential in the material he has written, and with the right audience it could be a hit. There is still a steep learning curve for this freshly-minted comedian, and I am interested to see where he goes next.
Admission is playing at Club SAW until June 24, 2023. Visit ottawafringe.com/fringe/ for the schedule and box office info. Read more reviews at https://apt613.ca/category/festival/fringe/.
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