Danny Bhoy, Chorley Little Theatre, 23 September 2012

Some stand ups limber up for a gig by baiting the audience members in the front rows. Danny Bhoy eschews this approach for his Dear Epson show. Shuffling onstage in unbuttoned check shirt and jeans, and looking for all the world like a postgraduate student in a shared house who has got up late for breakfast, he initially comes across as a mild mannered kind of guy. But the sheaf of letters he has penned to various corporate giants, around which his show is constructed, reveals an angry inner Danny. He reads the letters whilst sat on a stool, giving an intimate and confessional air to the show.  And whilst his targets are mostly institutions everyone is familiar with, his reasons for attacking them are often personal. From BT To Oil of Olay, Danny has critical questions for them all, wanting to know why Epson printer ink costs as much drop for drop as vintage champagne and whether FIFA President Sepp Blatter took a bung when he awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup. As a Scot, he's particularly perturbed by the latter. 'Knowing my luck, that's the only World Cup we'll qualify for in my lifetime.  The one you can't drink at.' Candle manufacturers Molton Brown get a letter asking how they can justify charging £36.50 for marketing a candle that is meant to conjure up a forest on the edge of midnight but which to Bhoy smells like wet grass.  His missive to British Airways, twelve years after their failure to let him reschedule a flight back from New York without having to pay for a new ticket, is a reflection on how a TransAtlantic love affair fizzled out.  He also reveals something of the young Danny, cutting pictures of New York out of brochures collected from the local travel agent to paste on his bedroom wall. The letters are an opportunity to lay some ghosts to rest.  Mr Dowel, the school woodwork teacher who never had the comic possibilities of his name exploited at the time, gets a letter. Rather satisfyingly, Bhoy tells him that whilst IKEA has rendered redundant what he learnt about joinery, he did get somewhere as a result of joking around in class. The show was well paced, and appreciated by the audience.  That it was a work in progress is evidenced by the fact that Bhoy had an idea on stage as to how his letter to Ticketmaster could be improved. 'Write that down, somebody.'  In the interests of furthering his comedy genius and without revealing the gag - Captcha, Danny, Captcha. The show concludes with a touching letter of advice from Bhoy to his 13 year old self. This final letter encapsulates the thoughful and thought provoking nature of a well written, beautifully executed and very funny show.