Review: JAZZ EMU: THE PLEASURE IS ALL YOURS, Soho Theatre

“Am I normal?”

After a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, Jazz Emu: The Pleasure Is All Yours arrives at Soho Theatre in London. The show heralds the return of “musical meteor” Jazz Emu (AKA Archie Henderson), who has returned after a world tour with one single goal - to satisfy every single audience member. More specifically, “Total and Utter Audience Satisfaction.” But how will this be determined? Luckily for Jazz Emu, he has created a survey to figure out just how “gruntled” (the opposite of disgruntled) each audience member is. 

The show begins with a 2001: A Space Odyssey-like introduction playing on a screen above the stage, showing how Jazz Emu became “The Man,” claiming superiority over any other person in the world. How great is Jazz Emu, one might ask? So great that he is able to gruntle the entire audience in under seven minutes, a personal record for the musician. But what’s a man to do once he has conquered gruntling the world? Jazz Emu must turn to his inner child, who reminds him that life is “just a big game,” inspiring him to take his audience interactions to the next level. Using the manuscript for his new book, Jazz Emu will teach audience members how to self-actualise.

But how does one learn how to self-actualise? Well, after experiencing an ego death in the Himalayas (he claims his ego death was the best, according to the monks), Jazz Emu has come up with a list of rules in order to help others succeed in the same way he has. The Pleasure Is All Yours is a mix of musical performances and comedic monologues (along with one purposefully awkward audience interaction), with Henderson exploring a bit more of a theatrical angle instead of his normal hour-long performances with a tendency to lean more towards a concert-like atmosphere. There are even some theatrical reference, including music to represent tension a literal Chekov’s gun perched on a pedestal on the side of the stage.

Fans of Jazz Emu will be pleased to know that the humour from previous shows hasn’t changed, including an absurdly delightful bit about falling in love with a tube man outside a car dealership, the use of a raven as a sound effect and a running gag about Jazz Emu’s desire to race through every film in history. While songs from his earlier shows aren’t brought into the new one, there are several references, including lyrics from his song, “Tiny Butt,” turned into a metaphor about self-esteem. The music videos playing on screen will be familiar as well, even though there are a few technical errors throughout the hour that have Henderson performing on his own, which he able to do with ease.

As one might expect with a performer venturing into new territory, there are some bits that could be improved, including a particularly bizarre scene in which Jazz Emu transforms into an alien performing stand-up, doing crowdwork using plenty of autotone. The show is at its strongest when Henderson is using the type of humour that has worked for him in the past, a mix of the absurd and some clever lyrics in musical numbers, highlighted in a song about Jazz Emu’s hierarchy of needs and in an eye-opening song about love.

Jazz Emu’s obsession with self-actualisation is the focus of the show and it’s fun to see how Henderson approaches this mindset, taking the concept of minimalism to the max - confetti cannon included. There are some more serious moments towards the end of the show, when Jazz Emu is trying to understand hwat exactly his inner child is encouraging him to do, but these are handled well, particularly when it comes to the themes of masculinity and ambition in the modern world. 

Jazz Emu: The Pleasure Is All Yours is a welcome return for the musical comedian, with a show that brings back his classic solo-style performance and also enables him to try something more theatrical. Henderson is an incredibly talented performer (who knew you could fart with your eye sockets?), and one can only look forward to what he will bring in his next show.