Garrett Millerick is an angry man, angry about an entire range of subjects: JFK, nursery teachers, the disobedience of his toddler and, chiefly, the space race (or lack thereof). He sees the entire space race as a classic case of one-upmanship between superpowers, and he wants to bring it back. In this vein, he delivers an angry diatribe recounting the sputnik launch, the American panic about being beaten by those pesky Russians, and the subsequent American moon mission. His sense of awe is palpable when he recounts the halcyon sixties where humans dreamed about the stars and the world stood still at the spectacle of the Earthrise image. Unfortunately, Millerick forgot to make it all that funny along the way, and it ends up turning into a bitterly nostalgic rant.
Early in the show, he’s in his element, pointing out absurdities such as people being excited about the nationalisation of the railways and Starmer’s promises of change, and railing against overly friendly nursery staff – it’s good stuff, and his wacky but biting observations earn deserved laughs. Unfortunately, however, he quickly gets off this more fruitful material and onto the space race. As you watch his humour morph into venomously angry diatribes, you keep expecting him to come to some sort of point or punchline, but it always ends up being underwhelming or getting lost entirely.
Essentially, what you end up watching is a man, drowning in misplaced nostalgia, who is extremely angry that people are more concerned about issues on this planet than fanciful dreams of interplanetary travel who has decided to vent about it to a room full of people. He has his moments, of course, and he starts and ends comparatively strongly, but the whole angry man schtick felt garish, unfunny, and wears thin very quickly.
Garrett Millerick Needs More Space, 16.25 Monkey Barrell, until August 25
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/garrett-millerick-needs-more-space
