10.61°C Colchester Fringe Review: Cereal For Dinner
Paul T. Davies reviews Cereal For Dinner, staged at Three Wise Monkeys.
A very powerful and raw stand up, in which Chris Young uses his childhood experiences of being brought up in poverty on a council estate in the 1990s, in which dinner was often cereal. It resonates with me, and he had an abusive father, so my childhood in the 1960s really chimed with his experiences. I’m fascinated by how artists shape their experiences into art, how much people are prepared to share, and, in this case, how uncomfortable an audience can feel while still remaining on the side of the stand up.
Chris is an engaging and likeable man and is confident enough to let the less acceptable parts of his childhood land and rest with the audience. He then, expertly, fires jokes that all 90s kids relate to (even if I didn’t get some of the cultural nods!), and the audience responded with laughter of relief! He interacted well with members of the audience, and his revenge on his father was funny and very well mimed.
The best autobiographical work writes from the scar, not from the wound, and that is certainly the case here. It makes for an unusual stand up performance while still observing the structures of stand up, but rising above the usual fare and making this an entertaining, slightly uncomfortable, but hugely rewarding experience.
