Sequels are rarely as good as the original and that is the case with Fylm, Simon Munnery's follow-up to 2012's Fylm-Makker. It was in that set that he first revealed his multi-media wheeze of performing to a camera while lurking in the stalls so that fans mostly saw his face beamed onto a screen.
It was an exciting idea when he premiered it, but for someone who is famously inventive — his previous show was a surrealist restaurant where he served jokes instead of food — Munnery has not really developed the concept here.
What we get is simply more of the same. Mainly his trademark witty wordplay, lo-fi cardboard puppetry and David Shrigley-esque squiggly cartoons.
Which is not to say that Fylm is not entertaining. There are some wonderfully whimsical moments. As proceedings warm up the bespectacled boffin quips that the show is “stadium ready”. After all, most arena comedians are watched on giant screens these days. Later he coins his own eccentric variant of Beckett’s “fail again, fail better” in “give up and carry on”.
At times, however, it feels as if Munnery has come up with a brilliant new game but has not quite figured out the rules, so instead he ends up lapsing into indulgence. A routine about Pythagoras in which he frantically scribbles equations on a board may leave non-mathematicians utterly baffled.
Yet while other comedians tend to settle into a groove once they have found their voice, it is heartwarming that Munnery is still finding new avenues to amble down. Fylm is certainly fun to see once, but it does have a whiff of diminishing returns about it.
Until March 22, 0844 8733 433, leicestersquaretheatre.com
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