Ali Woods show about love is a hilarious, compelling and deeply touching blend of storytelling and stand-up. Much of his material concerns relationships, love and family, and he starts off in this vein, going over some of his early life and frustrations with love, earning hearty laughs from the audience with whimsical anecdotes and one-liners. He does this all with a vitality and manic energy which is scarcely believable, he bounds about the stage, gesticulates wildly and contorts his face – some of the funniest moments of the show coming when Woods leaves his punchline or payoff implied, his movements and expressions conveying what words cannot.
Woods embraces and subverts masculine tropes during his set, using facetious laddish jokes to undermine masculine stereotypes and display the loneliness they can cause. His subtext is not limited to the men in the audience, however: he rails against the seemingly pointless jobs we labour at with a comic intensity few can claim to match; he urges the audience to ditch the excel spreadsheets, stop and smell the flowers, and live life. At this point and at certain others, Ali shouts at the top of his voice to get his point across, which, in such a small venue, feels unnecessary and disrupts the narrative slightly.
A story about a relationship is the throughline which connects his different tales and quips; the show is not rigidly structured, and Woods dances around the narrative he weaves in numerous digressions, but, as it progresses, its focus narrows and an emotional rollercoaster ensues. You are sent hurtling towards a heartbreaking, touching conclusion. Woods leaves everything out there on stage and, despite his abundant humour, his greatest strength may be the sensitive soul he displays, and the heart worn proudly on his sleeve.
Ali Woods: At the Moment, 20:30 Underbelly, August 1 – 25
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/ali-woods-at-the-moment
