The first and last time I attended a Jon Bennett show was a few years ago, on the very tiny Boxer Bar rooftop patio, where we played an unhinged Australian board game and offered whiskey shots. The audience was tiny and dead. I had the time of my life.

All this to say that I’m not familiar with his storytelling work. I’d already exceeded my daily quota for storytelling shows today, so I figured I’d might as well add this one on and lock in.

This show is chaotic and hilarious. I couldn’t predict where the stories would go. Very little is told linearly, which I just about always enjoy in a storytelling show as long as it all connects back, which it does. The man is hilarious. After being on site for over 14 hours, I wasn’t expecting to even have the energy to laugh as much as I did. Even so, there is an concerning edge to a few of the stories that gave me pause, and without spoiling it, this does get addressed at the end.

The turn towards the more serious, didactic portion of the show is I think both necessary and clumsy. I don’t want to go as far as to say it is unearned, but I do think there needs to be a smoother transition to get there, and I wish it could be articulated in a more elegant way. I am glad we got there at all, though, as indeed the stories prior were disquieting beneath the humor and I’d started to worry that the artist just didn’t see it.

This is clearly a very personal show for the artist and I commend him for his vulnerability, admitting things to an audience that most people can’t even admit to themselves. He mentioned that it’s new and still being worked on. I’d like to see this again once it’s evolved a bit more.