The Art of Dating and Dumping

If you look for David Florez on YouTube, you will find a clever sketch called Rabbit Fever in which a bunch of admen work on ways to sell a vibrator. Perhaps inspired by Edinburgh’s romantic reputation, Florez has focused this show on a more traditional route to climax.

The Art of Dating and Dumping is billed as providing the do’s and don’ts to guide those pursuing romance through the pitfalls and pratfalls inherent to finding, keeping and disposing of that special someone. The lesson is staged—with a very small leap of imagination—as a workshop in which Florez and his co-star, under the orders of a severe relationship counsellor-cum-drill sergeant, act out the full range of familiar relationship moments.

What ensues is a mostly unoriginal string of mini-sketches displaying the cleverer tactical turns likely to lead to a new bedfellow and the completely idiotic behaviour on the path to lonely nights in, possibly nursing a kicked crotch.
The pretend couple do a nice job of running through the shallow material, making the best of jokes we’ve heard many times over.

In comparison, the hard-nosed woman directing them is annoying, plumping for a soaring tonal range to her commandments that doesn’t do her, or the show, any favours. The whole package, while containing moments of charm, feels more like a box of Milk Tray than a dozen roses: cut-price and predictable rather than stylish.

If it were serious advice, one of the don’ts to wooing would be taking a prospective partner to see this show. He or she might just decide that neither you nor love are worth the bother.