Huge Davies: Sleep Paralysis Princess comedy review – Tough love and sleepless nights
Chronic insomnia fuels an inventive hour of silly songs and sharp one-liners
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‘Heads!’ warns Huge Davies as he walks through the middle of his crowd, the chunky Yamaha keyboard that hangs from his neck swinging dangerously from side to side. The title of Davies’ new show, Sleep Paralysis Princess, is apt. He is a chronic insomniac who hasn’t had a good night’s sleep for over a decade, an experience he details through a series of satisfyingly immature songs and one-liners.
Davies learns five minutes before taking to the stage that the aircon isn’t working in this particular basement. ‘I genuinely don’t think it’s legal for us to be down here,’ he laughs, only half joking. The room is boiling and seems to sap the life out of the Saturday evening crowd, but Davies handles it well.
Rather than being empathetic, he wins the audience over with tough love, berating them for not laughing enough at his material, or for failing to sing along fervently to his remix of the famous rhyme about Henry VIII’s six wives. Spoiler alert: none of Davies’ exes were beheaded, he simply left each of them ‘sexually unsatisfied’. In a rare earnest moment towards the end, Davies admits he found it exceedingly difficult to write his latest show. However, he is, of course, too humble to acknowledge that Sleep Paralysis Princess is an excellently crafted hour of silly stand-up which touches on an intriguing, scarcely touched subject.
Huge Davies: Sleep Paralysis Princess, Monkey Barrel Cabaret Voltaire, until 30 August, 9.30pm; picture: Dylan Woodley.