God! The One-Man Show
by Rich Potter
65 min / Comedy, Clown, Solo / PG
The key to a good pull quote is a clear and authoritative phrase like “Rich Potter is a God among actors,” or “God! The One-Man Show will restore your faith in the eternal grift of existence.” Stuff like that.
So you are there to see God, and God is who you get, a schmaltzy charlatan, performing delightful parlor tricks while ostensibly creating the universe. It’s good fun. Rich Potter ties two things together that I have never seen combined in a setting outside of church: slow hand magic and God. It works, he’s good, and he gets laughs by being funny and having a genuinely good time entertaining his audience. There’s nothing wrong there.
But there’s an old saying, it’s probably American, “when you strike oil stop drilling.” When last night the show exceeded the hour by five minutes, causing some patrons to miss their 10 o’clock shows, Potter spoiled the well. Even when he exceeded the fifty minute mark in the show, he began to dig his own grave. An audience that had previously joyfully gone along with God’s antics suddenly became palpably distressed.
The show needs to be cut down, Potter can lose many of the post-Y2K pop culture references (though that being said, for whatever reason references to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West did seem to please many baby boomers) and a certain Edenic reenactment should be eliminated entirely. It was just awkward and took Potter away from where he belongs; center stage.
The real magic of the show, Potter’s true miracle, is the secular humanist heart he transplants into the middle. With nothing more than cheap parlour tricks and a piece of fruit, God! The One-Man Show transmutes schmaltz into the sublime. There, there’s your pull quote, now try saying it 3 times fast.
God! The One-Man Show by Rich Potter is playing at Studio Léonard-Beaulne (135 Séraphin-Marion) until Sunday June 18, 2017. Tickets cost $12 online and at the door. Visit ottawafringe.com for the show schedule and box office info. Read more reviews at apt613.ca/fringe.
