Review

REVIEW: Ray Badran: Everybody Love Ray, Man – 3 ½*

REVIEW: Ray Badran: Everybody Love Ray, Man – 3 ½*

Radio Ha-Ha! talks Ha-Ha!

Written by Ciara Kelleher

In this highly interactive and entertaining show entitled ‘Everybody Loves Ray, Man’, Australian comedian Ray Badran talks the audience through some of the sitcom-esque situations that have happened in his life. The ambiance of the ‘Travelling Through Bookshop’ in Waterloo, gave Ray a cosy backdrop into which he drew the audience in with his highly entertaining life observations. Ray has a warm demeanour and comes across as quite relatable. The highlight of the night and the main entertainment came from his engaging interaction with the audience and the innocent questions he posed to them. When interacting with the audience, he was naturally funny and there was a charming ease to the performance. It was one of the only comedy shows I’ve been to where you hope the comedian involves you.

Ray’s show was not about a specific subject, instead what you are getting is him as a person and his collection of stories of awkward moments. Throughout the hour, he jokes about the length of the Subway footlong, why coats have so many pockets, happiness lights and shrinking with age. He also pokes fun at himself by telling embarrassing stories; like the time he “borrowed” a wheelchair at an airport because his brother who hadn’t seen him a while was collecting him and the uncomfortable situation in which he found himself afterwards.

I found his show easy to follow while at times a bit random. Unfortunately, some of the jokes fell a little bit flat. The laughter came after the comedy bit when he would continuously make fun of himself, his humour and how the joke didn’t work rather than the audience laughing at the story or bit itself. I thought that some of the stories were not strong enough to evoke an enormous reaction but merely sounded like an awkward story that you might tell a friend down at the pub and they laugh because they know you. Ray’s most successful running bit was self-deprecatingly jokes about how bad the show was going. For example, he bought a happiness light (which apparently is supposed to improve your mood by staring at it) and then made subsequent jokes about how after the show he would have to turn on his happiness light. Following this came dry humour about how jokes don’t always work. This got the most laughter but eventually, it was like listening to the same joke being made again and again.

However, I left wanting more and would happily watch Ray Badran again. He is planning on bringing the show to Edinburgh Fringe later this year.

To see if Ray is performing near you, check out his website for upcoming shows: http://www.raybadran.com/live-shows/ 

Radio Ha-Ha

February 7th, 2019

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