Adam Buxton, Union Chapel - comedy review

“Dr Buckles”, a bearded mix of playful professor and nutty nerd, excels at this inspired brand of puerile laptop humour
Playful professor: Adam Buxton (Picture: Sky Atlantic/Ben Meadows)
Ben Meadows
Bruce Dessau23 October 2014

The relationship between the internet and live comedy is a precarious one.

While some worry that home surfing might kill gigs, Adam Buxton has wholeheartedly embraced the web. He has built up a devoted cult following with his clip-based Bug nights and now, in Kernel Panic, live laptop humour truly comes of age.

Some of the funniest moments in this consistently entertaining evening erupt when Buxton, a bearded mix of playful professor and nutty nerd, reads out petty comments left below YouTube videos. One could argue that others have done the writing but the skill is in the way “Dr Buckles” edits and then recounts these exchanges with exquisite timing, conveying the colossal futility of a heated spat over the merits of Grizzly Bear or Brian Eno.

Buxton excels at this inspired brand of puerile wit. When he delivers a pithy putdown, multiple images of him singing “in your face” dance onto the large screen behind him. The set meshes the simply daft to the technologically deft most successfully when Brad Pitt’s pretentious perfume adverts are improved by a scatological animated makeover.

Children’s stories, Kraftwerk and Buxton’s own failings compared with his friend Joe Cornish's blossoming film career are all mercilessly mocked. The night’s highlights involve his hero David Bowie, or “Zavid Bowie” as he is rechristened. A series of sublime gags affectionately send up the recent Mercury Award nominee, peaking with a reboot of the Where Are We Now? promo featuring Buxton gazing adoringly at his idol. Oscar Wilde said “each man kills the thing he loves”. Dr Buckles just plants himself hilariously in their videos.

Sep 16 and Oct 12 (020 7226 1686, unionchapel.org.uk)

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