This show is an absolute fever dream, an hour of daft, dry humour that will make you think you’re going mad. This is because the title: ‘Al Lubel: Talks About His Name for Fifty-Six Minutes and About Something Else for Four Minutes’, is by no means an exaggeration.
It’s a wonderful name but never have I heard the deconstruction of two words in as much detail as this. Al Lubel talks about how to spell Al Lubel, how Al Lubel sounds phonetically, and every which way you can construe the name Al Lubel. He’ll sing for you, play games with you and downright entertain you.
This show is so far from traditional stand up but after you hear the name Al Lubel for the hundredth time in ten minutes you are eerily entranced. It is utterly absurd comedy that feels like a stand-off with Al to see who is going to break first.
Al’s infatuation with his own name is hard to pin down. Whether he adores it from a place of pure narcissism to the point he doesn’t want others to say Al Lubel and take away the joy he gets when he says Al Lubel. Or perhaps Al has a severe identity crisis in which the only sense of self he has is this very cool name. I don’t know! I don’t know if he knows, Al Lubel is a complete enigma.
His style is clearly ridiculous, but it’s done so well that you cannot help but laugh along. It’s strange humour that is almost reminiscent to that of David Lynch’s (but David Lynch’s name is nowhere near as cool as Al Lubel’s).
I’m unsure as to how Al managed to get so much content from his name, but he did, and he did it well. His show was as impressive as it was funny, and I will never forget the name Al Lubel.
Al Lubel: Talks About His Name for Fifty-Six Minutes and About Something Else for Four Minutes
15:00 at The Counting House (Venue 170)
August 14 – 28
