Matthew Highton's It Came from the Mud

Rather than any fair demonstration of Matthew Highton’s skill, this show is a painful reminder of how difficult it can be for performers to try something unusual on the free Fringe. A geeky technology enthusiast and insomniac, he aims to take us through life with a sleep-disorder, an approach that seems to have potential. There’s ambition in his set, he grounds many of his anecdotes in his chaotic dream world so that we’re never quite sure what’s true. This is highlighted by an abstract depiction of a man rising from the mud, a device designed to draw many of the threads together and make you re-examine what you thought was real.

But Highton just doesn’t have a command of this audience and is irretrievably stifled by the frosty atmosphere. There’s a confused family, a polite couple, two mouthy drunk girls at the back and a walkout. The problem could be with the venue: Whistlebinkies doesn’t seem to have attracted any kind of comedy crowd. But in these situations you can either address the awkwardness and do your best to appeal to the people who are actually listening, or you can stick to the script and hope that someone gets it anyway. Highton opts to do both half-heartedly, a disastrous mixture of telling us we’re a quiet audience and rushing through his piece to just get it done. The bottom rung is a hard place to be and this show is a casualty of the unruly, arbitrarily punishing non-paying crowd.