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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Mike Gunn - Uncut
Verdict: Drugs Hell With Squirrels
Edinburgh - Pleasance Dome - August 03
In 1977, according to his one-man show, Mike Gunn injected himself with heroin for the first time. He was 17. He finally gave it up when he was 30. Uncut is the story of the missing years.
At first sight, it's not promising material for stand-up. An engaging chap, head shaved, wearing a loose clean white shirt, well-cut grey silk suit with red ribbon and radio mike attached to his lapel, black shoes fashionably scuffed, strolls on stage with a slide changer. Defusing some heckles adroitly, he shows slides of his progression into heroin hell.
It's a long time since cripples and spastics were funny, or the words used. Initially it's a difficult concept to laugh at the mental damage sported by an addict, even when it's at his own invitation. And in Mike Gunn's brutally torrid show he doesn't ask for the laughter to come alongside him. Rather, he holds his former self up as a figure worthy of the audience's contempt. It's brave. It's astonishingly refreshing. And there are photographs.
The whining self-justification of celebrity detox confessions has become a Hello! genre all of its own. Mike Gunn picks up the mould of it-wasn't-my-fault-says-b-list-celebrity-has-been, and smashes it into a million razor-sharp fragments. Chilling and magnificent.
Mike Gunn's account starts with the plunge of the first needle into his vein, and his ability to keep a wide hole open in his arm. There's the first year of delight, the second of job loss, theft (a handy supermarket scam's described), drug burial and dog-blaming (did Fido dig up the stash?), injection of red wine, water, and vinegar. There's also a garden full of squirrels. Hallucination? Mike Gunn's heroin-addled eyes saw them. His effectiveness as a storyteller brings them vividly alive.
Mike Gunn's searing show re-defines what stand-up can be about. His engaging humour and personal warmth underscores a shocking journey of self-discovery.
END
John Park
reviewed Thursday 21 August 03 / Edinburgh / Pleasance Dome
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
