Review: Stephen Fry Telling Tales
Posted by Anura Samara, 15 November 2015
A night with Stephen Fry is an amusing and thought-provoking from ancient mythologies right up to the latest modern technologies.
After our debacle with John Cleese, it’s always a bit of a toss-up whether I want to see a much-loved figure live – will they live up to the promise of their onscreen persona, or will the reality be depressingly boring?
Luckily, Stephen Fry comes across as genuinely the same person live as we’ve seen in all of his TV appearances – Blackadder, Wooster and Jeeves, QI, Gadget Man and more. The format is of a one-man show – just Fry and his stool and his bottle of water.
His topics ranged across contemporary (including Australian) politics and current affairs, ancient and modern history, technology, travel, highlights from his career and his life. There was a great deal of wit and word-play but while Fry makes his views known he doesn’t do it in a condescending way – well, no more condescending than someone who’s knowledge vastly exceeded that of the entire audience combined!
He’s a massive name dropper, casually dropping in anecdotes on film stars, pop stars and the occasional Royal. But again, it doesn’t come across as condescending or being grandiose but just simply amusing anecdotes of people he’s met throughout his life.
Like a good stand-up comic, all of this comes across as tangents and diversions from whatever he was talking about but he always maintained the ability to come back to his starting thought, all without notes and with just the one break.
In the end, we came to see the ‘great man’ in person and left feeling that he was both still great and also quite humble and accessible.
Categories: Shows
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