Jimmy Hogg: Figgy Pudding
Brown venue, find showtimes
The white, middle-aged British guy that specializes in dry humor is a trope who has withstood the test of time. Jimmy Hogg elevates this stereotype by not only playing the skeptical straight man in his one-man show, but by also playing the fool.
Jimmy Hogg: Figgy Pudding examines what Hogg’s family life has been like around the holidays, with some farcical tangents strewn throughout. The audience warmed up and started laughing along about 20 minutes into the show, allowing Hogg to thrive in his spotlight.
He shared anecdotes about his devastatingly English Christmases – the sherry his family left out for Father Christmas and his parents wrapping individual peanuts and putting them in his stocking among other traditions that seem outlandish to us Americans. He also describes in detail his crippling fright of Santa Claus, to the delight of the audience. His delivery reminds of John Oliver in the best way, switching from deadpan to fanatical in mere moments.
Hogg goes out of his way to clearly define the transitions between bits by making use of the Brown venue stage. He also has a thoroughly developed persona for both his mother and his father, making it easy to distinguish between the two, even though both apparently drank excessively and insisted that they were not alcoholics.
Figgy Pudding is an amusing 60-minute show that will make you long for the simpler days gone by – as long as you are a British man with a paralyzing fear of a fat man in a red suit that climbs down your chimney once a year.
Read all of Watermark’s coverage of the 2016 Orlando Fringe Theatre Festival here.
