2010 Edinburgh Fringe
Matt Tiller review
Matt Tiller is an instantly likeable chap, and his Fringe show this year revolves about those everyday awkward situations we all encounter - from the handshake that goes wrong, to the malfunctioning automatic door on the toilet of a train.
Tiller takes a number of awkward situations in turn and sings a song about each, accompanying the lyrics with a tune from one of his three guitars. There's some good observations here - for example, a song about getting worried you appear to be stalking a girl, when in fact you're just taking the same route home as her... but, sadly, sometimes the lyrics don't back up the comical idea.
Other times, rather frustratingly, the musician doesn't follow a situation for as long as he probably should. I'd have preferred some of the songs to be longer as often, just as a tune got into its stride, Tiller would cut it short and we'd move onto the next situation. For example, a true-life story about a nudist camp is over in just a couple of minutes, when there was clearly enough material in the situation to mine for further comic gold.
Tiller sometimes interrupts his songs mid flow to banter with the audience - this is funny for the first few times it happens, but I grew frustrated towards the end of the hour that I couldn't hear the songs in full without breaks.
There's real potential here though as Tiller has an engaging personality and fun musical style. If the direction of the show could be changed slightly to look less at everyday mundane awkwardness (e.g. getting two bags from a corner shop) and instead focus on some of the more embarrassing moments that the comedian hints at, it could be a real winner. For example, the biggest laughs in this hour came when the musican revealed a somewhat personal story about a hitchhiking incident - I think we all wanted to hear a bit more about that story.