Brighton Fringe: Richard Pulsford: Get Rich Quick
Squeak @ Rotunda Theatre, 17 May 2024
The lights dim, ‘Money’ Money, Money’ by Abba starts to play, a projector snaps into life, and the song’s lyrics are interlaced with visual puns. Every ‘Rich’ from Burton to Madeley, the familiar words enjoying satire and silliness, hoping to set the tone for the next 50 minutes of comedy.
Richard Pulsford delivers one-liners and puns, with leftfield and clever reveals, ranging from the ridiculous to the smutty and over to political commentary, but he’s his own worst enemy. The show is a little bit of a gag-littered slog, with set-ups left overlong and Pulsford interrupting his own rhythm with needless and aimless pauses and tension building just as he’s getting going. He loses confidence at times when he needn’t, with a small quiet audience just out of reach in the dark and the added interruption of the wind flapping around this seafront yurt venue. It’s understandable but unnecessary – he’s an award-winning gag-writer and the punchlines themselves are good and solid.
Wordplay is central and key. Puns historically illicit groans as much as laughter – sometimes more – but these should be taken as just as much enjoyment on the part of the audience, which Pulsford seems uncertain about. He tries some audience interaction, but with quiet and few there’s not much to work with and as it’s only utilised to introduce topics the time spent serves only to lose further momentum.
The constructive criticism of this show lies in its title: Get Rich Quick. Keep the punchlines going, keep up the pace. The content is better than the confidence Pulsford has in it. And should a gag lie flat perhaps he would do well to move on swiftly, as there are plenty more to follow with punchlines that land exactly where he sites them.
https://www.brightonfringe.org/events/richard-pulsford-get-rich-quick
