BY SIMONE MEDONOS
[star rating =3/5]
Josh Berry is just 22 and 2018 marks his debut at the Fringe after his impression of Andy Murray went viral on social media in 2013. Since graduating from Oxford last year Josh began a weekly satirical sketch comedy show with Union Jack Radio where he provides all of the voices.
In Josh Berry: Voice Thief he confidently delivers fun impressions of the likes of Andy Murray, John McEnroe, Kevin Bridges, Josh Widdicombe, Prince Harry, Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Ross and not to forget, Louis Theroux. Some of the impressions are great, like Bridges and Widdicombe, and he justifies that some of the others are still in their infancy.
A tenuous thread runs through the show – Josh explains that he steals the voices to help deal with his insecurities and issues in his life, for example, turning into scottish comedian, Iain Stirling to deal with a recent breakup.
Josh’s impressions are convincing but the unexpected stand up element of the show is poorly planned and disjointed. There are somewhat unrelated jokes about wanking off to the labour manifesto – or is he just trying to be controversial since his mother is apparently in the audience?
Out of desperation he keeps returning to Louis Theroux in an attempt to recover the lack of laughter from the audience. The star of the show is an unsuspecting man in the front row who Josh keeps dragging back onto stage to be interrogated by his Louis Theroux character.
Unfortunately, towards the end the performance becomes awkward and almost cringeworthy when Josh veers off to talk about his insecurities and issues he faces as a young man. Whilst this may be an important issue, this is not what the audience came for and it is met with stunned silence. Josh quickly recovers and pulls up his friend in the front row again to continue labouring the Louis Theroux impression.
It’s a promising debut in that Josh has a lot of talent in ‘stealing voices’ but it would be great if he would stick to what he’s clearly good at. If in doubt… Louis Theroux.
