Jazz Emu - Knight Fever

If that last sentence made very little sense then you’re probably not a fan of Archie Henderson – better known to his legion of social followers (at the time of writing 458k followers on YouTube alone) as Jazz Emu. Imagine The Flight of The Conchords fathered a child with Hedwig (of Angry Inch fame) with The League Of Gentlemen as godparents/occasional babysitters and you’re still not close to the absurdity on show. The narcissistic genius that is Jazz Emu weaves between numbers with a naïve arrogance – the character well-formed and perfectly executed. The songs themselves are amusing (more wry smile than belly laugh) and the musicianship from all of the performers faultless.

The challenge I had with the show is it felt a little like an over-stretched in-joke never quite hitting either hilarity or true originality – the audience was predominantly existing fans and it felt perhaps this was playing to their expectations rather than a wider audience. The ‘plot’ was a little thin at times (hopefully a work in progress that will develop during the rest of the run in Soho before a national tour next year) – for example the choice of Kelly Clarkson as the nemesis seemed odd – neither contemporary nor ironic – just a little odd (and not in a good way).