The Gen-Z internet sensation brings his fast paced stand-up and character sketch comedy to Nottingham. But deprived of his Tiktok medium will he be any good?
My preconceived audience demographic forecast is pleasantly challenged when Henry Rowley comes to town. The self-confessed “Gen-Z internet tw*t” and “online comedy sensation” whose rise to the Playhouse was via harnessing online media; over the hard grind of working the comedy circuit. Anticipating youth aplenty, I was surprised to see a broader section of punters than expected. Teens and 20 somethings, some with their parents, sit alongside 30’s 40’s and me in my 50 somethings. Alongside a higher percentage of eligible women than you’d normally see at the Playhouse. All this serves to underline how the internet continues to revolutionise how we are entertained.
But what of Leicester lad, Henry Rowley? He is a force of energy unleashed onto the stage. Combining spoken word, movement, mime and hilarious well-developed characters that have driven his ascent. He has the presence of a young Kenny Everett who once used video in the same way Rowley uses the internet. Combined with the foppish cute kid looks of a young Jack Whitehall and a camp Freddie Starr, he is his own creation, and he entertains. Switching from casual banter with an enthusiastic audience, to a hilarious, pre-recorded reading of a spoof interview in Tatler magazine which he interacts with, via movement, mime and precisely timed asides, which is part Cabarets’ Liza Minnelli and part Dame Edna which has the theatre in laughter.
His well-defined, well-worked, over the top characters have the online in-crowd laughing away. Minty, the London public school bitches bitch, and Queen of the Post Club Afters, who only does vegan and organic substance abuse. Her punch line was usurped by a heckle in the form of an incredibly well-timed loud sneeze. Rowen’s’ skill is to milk this for the comedy value it has, showing he’s not just an internet pretty face.
This hilarious and entertaining routine is Rowley dropping into 5th gear as he takes the crowd with him
Next up is a teacher based on every teacher Henry has ever met, which leaves one wondering as to the future the British education system, as he entertains and terrifies in equal measure. My highlight of the characters was the doting, overpowering mother of his friend George, who cannot but praise her only son, whilst denying her daughter in a way that shows that the inspiration for this character is real. My son’s favourite was an imitation of Dragon’s Den’s Stephen Barkley Business Podcast. This sees him switch from interviewer to interviewee by jumping 90 degrees in his chair, interrupting the guest to tell periodically tell them that he “is a multi-millionaire, has a girlfriend and is much better than them”. Those who know and love this character are guffawing in their seats.
Rowley returns to his casual banter with an energised audience before taking us through the perils of online dating, returning to a character not based on his friend George, but is based on his friends George and his problems dating. Rowley once again uses a hilarious, pre-recording of George’s thoughts and interior monologue, based on competing advice from his parents on how best to success with dating. This hilarious and entertaining routine is Rowley dropping into 5th gear as he takes the crowd with him. It is this energy, this zaniness which makes his show verge towards the franticly shambolic as he takes us on a tour of the hierarchy of airport users, delighting in presenting a hardened character who takes great delight in surviving all the perils an airport can throw at you. But having inspired us to take flight with him, he manages to land his plane. Concluding with an entertaining and insightful musical routine on the most angelic of subjects, the inner workings of women’s toilets in a nightclub.
It is refreshing to see an internet, TikTok star not use the screen that has taken him this far. But rather use sound and unconventional, energised performances that embrace theatres traditions of movement, mime and characterisation with the ability to respond to whatever happens and find comedy. As the internet redefines how entertainers find audiences, Henry Rowley embraced his this evening, concluding how, in asking himself why he does what he does, he answers “it is because he wants the world to like me”. Tonight, Nottingham did.
Henry Rowley: Just Literally played at the Nottingham Playhouse on Thursday October 24th 20204.
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