Review – The Last Temptation of Randy

We are all victim to temptation, even if our heads are purple and made of felt. Randy, puppeteered by Heath McIvor, is a personification of the twenty-something man with an angry, haunted and beautiful soul. Propped upon a raggedy couch, he shares with us an hour of intricately woven stand-up, and a tale of heart breaking love and loss.

For lovers of Randy’s more traditional stand-up this is a surprising and pleasing transition into a different form. This show is a delightful melting pot of melancholic melodies, rants, and beautifully poetic storytelling, which explores the internal turmoil of passion, self-doubt, loneliness, regret, and mortality. Randy’s head acts as a form of punctuation to his prose: diving, wiggling and adding emphasis to his more passionate invocations. His offsider in this performance, housemate Jimmy Stewart, enriches the evening with folk love songs on his beaten-up Maton guitar. It was an unexpected pleasure to encounter this deeply personal and moving tale. And, of course, when things risked getting too serious an injection of Randy’s observational comic tirades were there to elicit roars of laughter and recognition from the crowd.

Randy’s character is so rich, real and engaging. Until he gently massages the fourth wall, with comments about not being able to see the audience, it’s easy to forget that you’re paying close attention to a puppet. Randy is the muppet that grew up with you, and he suffers all the vices, virtues, doubt and hope of a real life Gen Y-er. This show is a delicious cocktail of whimsy, sorrow, romance, fury, and hilarity. You simply must wrangle yourself a ticket.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcmivir4uag&w=400]