Joe Kent-Walters is - Frankie Monroe: Live!!! (& Dead!!!)

Beetlejuice eat your heart out because there’s a new living undead anti-hero in town! Joe Kent-Walters makes a drab conference room at the Greek Centre feel like the biggest stage in the world, fully enrapturing the room with his larger-than-life presence, boisterous energy and cheeky wink-wink nudge-nudge interjections.

Frankie Monroe: Live!!! (& Dead!!!) is a hijinks-every-second kind of show and a masterclass of character comedy. Kent-Walters injects a vaudevillian spirit into the undead and playfully disarms the audience through high-energy musical numbers, unhinged games and quick banter. Audience involvement is baked in, but never at the expense of the individual, keeping the room fully at ease and genuinely itching to play with Kent-Walters. All of the bits are more flirty than feisty, with the equilibrium between chaos and whimsy beautifully harnessed.  

Like every good piece of theatre, there’s a tragedy bubbling in the deep end of this bizarro underworld, which all erupts into an audience-gasping finale that leaves you literally dying for more. I’m so glad I got to witness this silly show for myself. Overall, a ferociously funny trip into absurdity, a definite must-watch for every Mighty Boosh head out there and a towering benchmark for the future of character comedy.