Bug #16

After spending much of 2016 taking the David Bowie special edition of Bug to various venues around the world, Adam Buxton returns to the Norwich Playhouse for Bug #16.

For those of you not in the know, Bug is a show featuring a selection of the latest interesting, brilliant, strange and otherwise noteworthy music videos presented by the ever lovely Adam Buxton. Think of it like going round to a mate's house to watch videos on YouTube, except your mate is actually really funny, has a MASSIVE TV instead of a crappy old laptop and has invited a few hundred other people over too.

As the audience filters in and takes their seats, we are treated to helmet cam footage of Buxton cycling through the streets of this fine city, en route to The Playhouse with a clock counting down to his imminent arrival. It's a nice touch and beats the usual empty stage we normally get at comedy gigs. As the clock reaches zero, Doctor Buckles bounds onstage and pleads with the Playhouse staff for the Wi-Fi password so he can download his script for the evening. After a few minutes of improvised riffing, the password arrives and we can start the show properly.

The videos themselves are the stars of the show, selected by curators David Knight and Phil Tidy. Every single one is visually arresting and shows just how much talent there is in an often overlooked medium. From the big hitters, Radiohead's Trumpton/Wicker Man homage Burn The Witch, Peter Gabriel's stop-motion masterclass Sledgehammer (30 years old this year) and Ok Go's amazing zero gravity Upside Down & Inside Out, to tracks by lesser known European bands, such as De Staat's Sufi circle-dancing Witch Doctor and Miike Snow's comedic Bond spoof Genghis Khan. The only requirement is that you have to have a killer video, it just so happens that the music is pretty great too.

Adam Buxton is an entertaining host throughout, obviously enjoying the music, nodding away illuminated by the gloomy light of the big screen. He intersperses the videos (shown in pairs, with each pair sharing a similar theme) with comical vignettes of his own creation, choice picks from YouTube viewer comments, an hilarious montage of reaction videos to new Radiohead material and a clip of a father changing a dirty nappy and almost vomiting on his child. Bug is a perfect vehicle for Buxton, his unbridled enthusiasm for new music is infectious. It never feels like he is just showing us the videos, he's sharing them with us, welcoming us in to watch what he loves because he knows we'll love them too. I can't think of a better host, or for that matter anyone I would trust enough to convince me to sit in a dark room and watch a Coldplay video.

Sadly the couple of hours we were sat there flew by all too quickly; I could have easily stayed for a couple more, probably even longer. But Adam had a long cycle home, so he can be forgiven. Hopefully we won't have long to wait for Bug #17.