This is a show about the truly awful few years John Hastings has had since 2019, consisting of accidents, bed bugs, long boards, and death.
Sound fun? Probably not… but it really, really is.
John enters the room and immediately plays off the three bearded men at the front of the crowd, creating laughs from thin air and playing the room expertly.
Since the accident, certain things set off his PTSD, a could-have-been tough topic that he turns into something that you can’t help but laugh along with.
It seems the crowd might be adding to his trauma tonight as although the laughs are plentiful, loud, and long, they may be a little close to the end of each joke for John’s liking, inciting a mention from him about how we are obviously enjoying it, but to save his nerves could we be a little quicker showing it – a great example of how he tailors the show to the room.
For an hour we are taken on a rollercoaster journey, with more downs than ups, that could have finished off a lesser man, but not John.
The show is a great example of how you can view things from very different angles, with moments of sadness mixed with moments of joy, put together in such a way that you feel like you have really shared something of his life.
Finishing to cheers and heartfelt applause this show is ultimately a tribute to a good friend and a very fitting one
John Hastings: Do You Have Any Ointment My John Hastings? 20:15 Monkey Barrel, Carnivore, August 8-28
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/john-hastings-do-you-have-any-ointment-my-john-hastings
