★ ★ ★
Stags Woodward is an immensely likeable and charismatic performer. His kindness, vulnerability and willingness to be open with storytelling and silly jokes. It will be a blessed relief for audiences who loathe the cut and thrust of angry and offensive stand-ups that mistakenly believe they’re edgy.
Help Wanted! begins with the all too common problem of ‘needing help, but not knowing how to ask for it?’ We quickly get lost in tangents and and childhood stories of being different. I love that he openly explained that he was being prompted by his housemate Josephine (I feel we should normalise our community having prompters in the audience keeping us right, it’s a great innovation).
Stag’s Brummie charm is so heartening, it’s a joy and he is totally authentic in being unwieldily in his delivery. We need so many more people to talk about mental health and neurodiversity, and Stag’s does that admirably. I did feel it took a while to get into the central idea of the show, and his autistic diagnosis is only revealed in the last minute. I am not suggesting that he has to reveal anything about himself in any other way than his choosing, I just personally wanted to know more about that.
There is plenty of unexpected depth in Help Wanted!, from his stories about grief and loss, to the hoarding disorder that took over his life. I feel there’s a lot of potential in Stag’s work, and I feel his outreach is just as important as the show, especially around his amazing challenges and unbowed optimistic nature. We look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
Help Wanted! Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters – Maggie’s Front Room 12:15 (1hr) Aug 4-28 (free – non ticketed) 16+
