Writer and Performer: Rob Kemp
Before accepting this assignment, your reviewer gave serious thought and consideration to making the 1 hour and 38 minute drive to see some stand up comedian sing Elvis’ songs as a backing track to a 1987 schlock horror film. Turned out, it was worth the drive.
You don’t need to be very well acquainted with the film Evil Dead II, or the music legend that is the king Elvis Presley. But if you’re not, then you have lived a very sheltered life or you have just stepped out of a different dimension or parallel universe into this one. Not to worry – Rob Kemp’s one person show, The Elvis Dead, makes it easy to appreciate both the film and the music legend.
The Elvis Dead is playing at the intimate (aka small), but nice Hull Truck Theatre conveniently located on the main road of Hull’s city centre.
This one-person show is presented as a standup comedy routine with one microphone, one table of props and one wall-size screen behind the performer. But then it becomes a stand-up comedy routine on steroids. It is more a theatrical performance then just a stand-up comedy show.
The opening, warm up act was a gentleman named Jake who went through the predictable and mildly humorous jokes about his size (XXXXL), being thirty, still living with his Mum, dating etc., etc. What was not predictable to Jake or any member of the 50 plus audience, was the appearance, 3 minutes into his set, of a person who was obviously in some distress stating that they were having an episode of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). This was no joke and not part of the show. Jake immediately dropped the routine and went right into making sure this individual received whatever help he and the audience could offer. So, big shout out to all those in the audience who showed some compassion for another human being and to Jake for not making this the main topic of the rest of his routine.
Rob Kemp might be one of the few comedians these days that still uses physical comedy to make us laugh. Not as manically physical or funny as Lee Evans or Michael Crawford, but physical enough to get a hardy laugh from the audience by smashing three plates on his head. He also had a very Vaudeville/Music Hall way of including and encouraging the audience to become part of the show which they enthusiastically agreed to and became so much a part of the show that they became the chorus for several songs and sound technicians by helping Rob fix a microphone cable (what can a guy do when he has a chainsaw screwed to the end of his arm) and feeding him the microphone cord as he went into the audience and back again. I think it might be time for Rob to invest in a wireless microphone.
Rob’s comedy and acting abilities are top notch, and his singing voice isn’t too bad either as he proved when he performed the demanding Elvis classic, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah at the end of the show. But it is going to be his comedy writing that keeps him working in the business for some time to come. One hopes. Somehow, he was able to take a few clips from one of his favourite cult classic horror films (projected on the large wall behind him) re-write the lyrics of some of Elvis Presley’s most famous and appropriate songs so they told the story of what was going on in the film, use a small selection of props which related to notable scenes from the film and blend them all together to create his own concert style tribute to both the film and the music. This was obviously a passion project for Rob who worried just a little bit too much out about whether or not the audience would “get it”. Because, as he said “this show is as niche as f**k”. Don’t worry Rob, we got it.
This type of performance could easily become the next incarnation of The Play That Goes Wrong series of plays with Rob creating a number of theses shows each featuring a different film and well-known music score. He hinted around to as much when he quipped, he was thinking of doing Beetlejuice. Your reviewer would suggest that Rob do the film Carrie to the music of the Four Seasons.
“Carrie, Carrie baby, Carrie why’d you burn down the school”.
Just a thought.
This type of production could have very easily become as cheesy as an after-dinner bread board, but it didn’t and was something unique, fresh and deserving of a long run in a larger venue.
Reviewed on 31st October 2023.
