Review – Yon and His Prism of Sexy Thoughts

Yon and his Prism of Sexy Thoughts is the sex-Ed class they couldn’t give you in high school. Yon (Simon Hall), the third leg of Tripod, shares with us the less sexy side of sex, navigating such leitmotifs as vomit sex, pity sex, incest, pornography and paedophilia. The evening is a colourful show-bag of wrong. He is accompanied in this filth junket by two musicians operating a small army of synthesizers and keyboards.

It was never going to be easy to meet the expectations of avid fans of Tripod, who’ve delivered solid musical comedy for over fifteen years. And unfortunately Yon doesn’t hit his target. His risqué material comes off as tired rather than edgy; not absurd enough to be memorable. His self-deprecation wasn’t pronounced enough to validate the material which was vaguely demeaning to women. His anticlimaxes were  anticlimactic.

There existed an uncomfortable dynamic between Yon and the two musicians on stage, who were not quite part of the show, but not quite outside of it either. They didn’t seem to know how to react to Yon’s material. Nor did we. However we gained occasional glimpses of Yon’s incredible voice through the musical numbers.

The show transmitted an air of disappointment, which it was supposed to, but not in this way. Yon may have been a victim of his success; it’s hard not to compare this Fringe-esque show to Tripod. Hopefully Yon finds the audience he is looking for this comedy festival.