Jason John Whitehead: Letters For Mindy review

 

Opening his show Letters For Mindy with this dilemma Whitehead lays down the context which saw himself arrive back into the UK three weeks late from tour to find himself single after being dumped by his girlfriend of five years.

 

Laying down on the foetal position to mimic his time on the psychologists couch, Whitehead takes us through the travails of being cast aside and coming to terms with it. 

 

However Whitehead is not the kind of comic who can keep a show downbeat for long, and quickly finds his rhythm by deconstructing his own story.

 

By splitting the recovery from a break-up into five separate stages which include shock, denial, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance, Whitehead follows the cycle of how it feels to be stranded emotionally, rather than simply physically.

 

A lot of people can mistake Whitehead’s natural enthusiasm for niavety, which is unfair. Whitehead exudes a positive desire to entertain, much more so than the visceral style of comedy which we have become more accustomed to in the live circuit.

 

But within that enthusiasm lies some well worked material. Skipping from how to spend an afternoon thwarting the best laid plans of a telephone banker to the different ways men and women console their recently dumped friends to why society tells people that they ‘need’ to act adult Whitehead extrapolates from his core theme with ease while never deviating too far from his central point. 

 

The journey that Whitehead took was one of recovery, which, is far harder than simply traversing the globe and it is one which we’ve all had to take at one point or another. Packed with good one-liners and excellent material Letters for Mindy is well thought out and well delivered show.