The List: Playing games with an audience
★★★★ A comic who makes his move with a cautionary tale that enthrals and intrigues
Kevin James Doyle is better than most at chess. And he’s pretty good at storytelling too, starting out with chess and building up to a complex set of games-within-games and financial wheeler-dealing. This might start off like a humblebrag, but there’s a twist; forget about Samuel Beckett or Marvel, this endgame turns the tables on Doyle big time.
Doyle created his own unique method of teaching chess to children while living in New York, and that somehow launched him into a series of meetings with dubious investors in Shanghai, resulting in millions of dollars at stake. He is a performer with acting aspirations, smart enough to realise that playing a dubious role on Law And Order wouldn’t help his career as a mentor to kids. So, this clever show allows him to spin a cautionary tale for adults which offers a different proposition from the usual stand-up targets: in what way does chess reflect the moral of the story told here?
A warning to the unwary, Doyle has quite a drama to unfold, and how quickly audiences guess his punchline will affect how much they enjoy the show. But this brisk, unsentimental hour reveals Kevin James Doyle as one performer who won’t be playing games with his audience. Or will he?
Kevin James Doyle: After Endgame, Just The Tonic At The Caves, until 25 August, 5.05pm.
