Demetri Martin

London, October 2011

by Joanna Orland

I have literally been waiting years for Demetri Martin to do his show in London. It’s been 8 years since his last UK show! I first discovered Demetri a couple of years ago at the London Film Festival when he played the lead in Ang Lee’s film “Taking Woodstock”. He was just so damn charming! I did my research and then completely remembered him from The Daily Show. This guy isn’t just an actor… in fact, he’s barely an actor… he’s a FUNNYMAN! Score.

So after realizing that there was a whole world of Demetri Martin that I was missing out on, I went on Amazon and ordered his standup DVD “Person” and also got into watching his amazing and prematurely cancelled after only 2 seasons show “Important Things With Demetri Martin”. If you’ve seen either of these, you will know what his schtick is and you will either LOVE him obsessively and devoutly, or you will think “what a twat.”.

I’m the devout fan myself. So, I found out he was playing 3 dates in London this month – two in The Leicester Square Theatre, an intimate venue suited for his style of standup, and also one in a much larger venue of Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

Demetri’s set is what you would expect. Some audience interaction, some jokes mostly involving grammar and puns, personification of objects, drawings, charts, graphs and voice over. What an intelligent and quirky way to present comedy. He’s just such a clever boy! And I love his fringe!

Demetri’s comedy presentation is lean and mean. He doesn’t waste time building up to the punchline. He presents you the punchline first and gives you examples of why this is funny. With each example, it gets funnier and funnier. I want more! Please don’t wait another 8 years to return! I don’t have Important Things to keep me entertained in the meantime! But, I did get myself a copy of his book! Screw you E-Reader!!

Also a special shout out to the opening act Levi MacDougall who has an awesome poem entitled Feetprints.

In summary, Demetri Martin rocks.

That is all.