THE cringe factor in this show is excruciating and while that gave it its strongest moments, it also – for me at least – made it a somewhat uncomfortable hour.
I think there was a fundamental disconnect between me and Nick. He’s a young American, used to examining every aspect of his life in extreme detail and laying it bare for others to sift through the entrails, while I’m a Scot from the 70s who’d rather admit to seeing Gary Glitter twice than admit that emotions actually exist, far less put them on public display.
The fact that I was one of only two non-North Americans in the audience, all of whom were at least a couple of decades younger than me, was certainly to Nick’s advantage.
They had no qualms in uttering “Bro, no!” when they realised just where the next brutally honest section was going, recognising and revelling in his OTT geekiness and apparently endless stock of cringeworthy behaviour.
They also got several cultural references that simply flew over my head.
In fact, for me the strongest reference was an unintended one, as Nick hugely resembled the young Richard Dreyfus in Jaws – a Shaw favourite – right down to his delivery and fondness for double denim.
An undeniably intelligent chap – a Harvard graduate, no less – Hornedo has that American certainty that everything he does is profound and imbued with deeper meaning whereas this cynical old Jock found some of the show sailed close to self-absorbed navel-gazing.
The show examines his love of crushes, he describes himself as being “more yearny than horny”, and focuses on a sequence of cringey (sorry but it’s the most appropriate word) behaviour that culminates in breaking up with a girl via the medium of him explaining his reasoning over an eight-minute video compilation of movie clips.
Yes. Really.
It’s also intercut with snippets of what purported to be a recording of his first encounter with an ex after 10 years but it came as no real surprise that this was a simulacrum of the real thing.
Look, Nick’s a nice guy and an engaging stage presence, and it’s clearly a well-crafted hour, it’s just that I’m not as interested in his teen crushes as he so obviously is.
Nick Hornedo: Watch This When You Get Home, 14.25, Underbelly Bristo Square – until August 24 (not 11th)
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/nick-hornedo-watch-this-when-you-get-home
