Previewing My Reviews

This post is something of a preemptive strike.  As a blogger, I’ve shied away from reviewing things for one, very simple reason: I’m rubbish at doing it.   There are lots of books, TV shows and podcasts that I would love to give a proper review of, and so in my own small way promote the things that I like (it would be an exceedingly small way – nobody reads this blog).  However, whenever I try and write a review, they tend to fall in to three categories:

1) Things that I can’t stand.  In some ways, these would be the easiest to write a review for – I could just concoct a bile-filled rant, that would be probably be quite fun to do.  I wouldn’t, however, want to come across as one of these people who gets a false sense of superiority by simple slagging something off that isn’t to their particular tastes (anyone who frequents internet forums knows what I am talking about).   Sure, if I was a more intelligent man, I could write a devastating deconstruction of my subject, picking apart where the reviewee has gone terribly wrong.  But I’m not more intelligent than I am, and I can’t be bothered writing about stuff I don’t like; life if too short.

2) Things that I really like.  As I tend to be the only person who I know, who reads the same books, or watches the same programmes that I do, then I tend to spend a bit of time thinking about why I like the things that I particularly like.  In my head I have all the reasons sorted out in to a seemingly cogent argument. If I ever try and express these thoughts though,  they tend to come out as: ‘I like it cos like it’s really dead good.’  Again, this probably comes from a lack of skill and talent on my part. 

3) Things that I think are alright.  These are especially problematic, if I can’t explain how I feel about things I have really strong feelings about, what chance do I have with something I feel indifferently about?  

It gets even more tricky when I think about live comedy (and we finally get to the point of this post).  I go and see live comedy every month or so (generally when a comedian turns up somewhere local), and it’s something I really enjoy.  After the event, I sometimes have a quick search online to see if someone mentions the gig I’ve just been too; they invariably don’t.  It gets me to thinking that maybe I’m the person who should be writing about the gig I’ve just been to, and potentially informing other people about them.  After all,  if you spread the word, and these events become more popular, then there’s always a chance that they’ll become more frequent.   It’s a win-win situation.

The only thing stopping me (apart from being rubbish at reviewing things) is that when it comes to live comedy, I am positively uncritical.  This is not to say that I can’t distinguish between gigs, and which ones are better than others – I’m not completely brain dead.  It’s more that even the poorer gigs I’ve been to have been…well they’ve been alright, and better than staying in and watching TV.   If you see something live, and it’s only mildly entertaining, then at least you’ve had an experience.  I also don’t have the heart to be truly critical of live comedy, I’ve got too much admiration for anyone who gets out there and does it.  You also get the feeling that some comedy ‘experts’  have missed the point; you’ll read a review of a comedy event where you feel like the reviewer is Tim Tyler, The Boy Who Lost His Laugh (I apologise for the obscure reference).  Who wants to go to a comedy show and get distracted by technical details, and whether or not the show is ‘groundbreaking’? Sometimes funny is just funny.

Anyway, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and write ‘reviews’ of any live events I go to.  Just please understand that I’m doing it to provide some evidence that these events actually happened, and that somebody actually attended them. Don’t expect anything particularly critical, and certainly don’t expect anything insightful.  They’ll probably just be a list of facts: date, place, a guesstimate of attendance, whether or not the room was too hot etc etc.  It’s all I can manage.

So in future, and you read a review on this blog and think it is rubbish then know this: I agree.