“This show is about change”
On 20 March 2022 at 4:59 PM, Paul Foot’s life changed forever while he was driving on the outskirts of Lancaster, and we’re about to find out why. Paul Foot: Dissolve is Foot’s way of telling audiences what happened to him and the implications it has on not only him but the world around him as well. The show is co-written and directed by Aaron Kilkenny-Fletcher, though I am curious as to how much of his contributions make it into the show - more on that later.
Foot begins with a bit of context so we can understand why this particular moment was so life-changing, telling us about how he has been struggling with mental illness after a traumatising incident in his childhood. He tells us a story that his mother used to tell him about a bird on the lower branches of a tree dreaming of being like the beautiful bird on the top of the tree, a story with a metaphor that he promises will make sense later, though he also says he just put it into the show so the critics can’t say that he didn’t include any metaphors.
And what is the special moment that changed Foot’s life? According to Foot, he claims that all of the depression he had struggled with for decades simply disappeared like a “silent explosion” in his mind. He admits that it sounds unbelievable, especially his claims that he no longer feels any negative feelings, instead only being happy and living in the moment - never worrying about the future or the past. Indeed, this moment does seem incredibly unbelievable, and it is a reveal that is so confusing that I found myself not really laughing at anything after the cat is let out of the bag.
There is a warning within the show’s description about Foot getting distracted by a range of topics including King Tutankhamun, the House of Lords “and what Jesus might have achieved if he’d been a plumber,” but even this warning is not enough for how many tangents Foot goes on throughout the night. Other topics include naming the years different things were invented, the concept of an “Equality Tsar” and a whole bit in which Foot pulls out a suitcase to tell one joke.
One might feel as though they are trapped in a time loop when they are listening to Foot repeat himself over and over again with nothing moving forward for several minutes at a time. Some of these tangents also get way too “preachy” for a comedy show and there were moments when I felt like I was sitting in the pews of a church listening to a pastor give a sermon instead of laughing in the basement of a comedy club.
Another aspect of the show, this one quite uncomfortable, is the lack of regard that Foot has for the personal space of audience members, something he himself acknowledges but never actually apologies for. From the minute he enters the room, Foot is getting in the faces of unsuspecting audience members, yelling at them as he climbs over their chairs. While I can understand walking around the audience and getting to know people, getting into their space is on another level and consent should be given. It reached the point where Foot took a phone from an audience member and rants about young people depending on their phones, which is ironic as the whole point of his show is that he is “freaking enlightened” and no longer cares.
Paul Foot: Dissolve is an interesting show but has so many tangents and unfunny moments that the comedic elements get lost and we are left with a rambling tale of enlightenment. For someone who is seemingly at peace with the world and happy with where he is, living in the moment, Foot sure has a lot to rant about.
Paul Foot: Dissolve ran from 25 to 30 November at Soho Theatre.
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