Pierre Novellie begins his show with a confession.

 

He’s moving to the suburbs – and suspects his views might be becoming more reactionary.

 

Is it a natural sign of age and evolution?  Can he do anything to halt the decline?

 

Novellie is a glorious mix of idiot and savant.  He has an outrageously florid turn of phrase and a natural authority on stage which is reinforced by his outwardly conventional appearance. He’s ferociously intelligent but prone to obsession and rigid thinking.

 

He’s fully aware of the connection between his autism and his style of comedy – he’s just written a book about it – but it isn’t mentioned once during the hour.

 

Instead Novellie takes us on a trip to Melbourne, which is apparently in the middle of a golden age. There are jobs. There is money. You can earn cash back from your hotel by refusing housekeeping.

 

Novellie descends into a form of self-righteous madness. He is determined to win the hotel cashback game – even if means losing his health and his sanity in the process.

 

Back in London things get even worse. Novellie is moving house on the day of his return – and he’s planning to do it alone. Can our hero move the contents of a flat to his new suburban terrace without losing something vitally important? Will the jetlag be a help or a hindrance?

 

The audience feels an overwhelming sense of impending doom.

 

Everything about him seems hopeful, confident and organised. But after seeing what happened in Australia, we sense the chaos which reigns beneath the surface. He takes us on a trepidatious race across London – improvising wildly when various mishaps and miscalculations threaten to derail his quest.

 

He ends up the centre of a disaster firmly of his own making. He becomes a grotesque figure stripped of all authority – a monstrous presence stalking his way across the city in search of home.

 

Novellie constantly undermines his own self-importance. He trips himself up repeatedly, stripping himself of every last shred of his own dignity and respect. The moustachioed colonel he fears he might become is exploding in real time before our eyes.

 

His reliably ludicrous way with words elicits effortless roars of laughter from his audience. Banana skin follows banana skin in his tortuous heroic tale.

 

Novellie is a master at creating a superbly structured hour and he builds his narrative towards a magnificent crescendo. When his dash across London is almost done, a last-minute catastrophe sees this proud man finally crumple into a tired emotional heap.

 

But he wouldn’t leave us on a downer. Finally, a miracle – which not only rescues our stricken hero but also restores his faith in humanity. And then another, unexpectedly absurd twist, which leaves the room ringing with laughter all over again.

 

 

 

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