Jamie Wolf: Psycho ★★★★★

When dealing with presenting tragedy on stage, oftentimes the instinct is to go for the gut-punch. The dramatic. The melancholic. We forget that comedy is often an effective tool for overcoming and facing tragedy. Laughter in the face of heartbreak: a joke can often accomplish so much in the face of the tragic.

Stand-up Jamie Wolf laughs in the face of tragedy. What is clear, from an hour of wonderful stand-up, is that Wolf is less concerned with inducing an audience to tears and more with making them laugh. Not at him or his situation but rather with him.

In Jamie Wolf: Psycho, Wolf arms himself with the weapon of truth and transforms it into a heartwrenching and hilarious set featuring loss, opiate addiction, and therapy. Rather than bringing a tragic angle to the story, the truth is employed as a tool to understand Wolf, to show how vulnerability can be as powerful as a good joke – though they are intrinsically linked.

Wolf has an outstanding stage presence. He allows the audience an insight into his personal story and his comedic M.O.: a blunt confrontation with the personal demons that have wreaked havoc upon him. From an addiction to opiates to the American healthcare system, this is a story that resonates with an audience, especially an American one, with anecdotes about a privatised health system.

It’s relatable, as it is introspective, while also being uproariously funny. Without spoiling some of the material, it’s astounding to see a comic face the oxycontin crisis head-on with such levity – without taking away the personal impact it has had on his life. Performing at Union Hall in NYC, this is not an easy task, with its prestige as a venue meaning that the audience are overly analytical and critical of his jokes.

Utilizing a storytelling format, Wolf also takes us through a journey involving the prescription of painkillers and his addiction – a dangerous car crash on OxyContin is rendered beautifully. Without feeling shocking, Wolf allows the audience to gradually understand how he has taken darkness and gained illumination into his past.

The difficult truth of grief and trauma is an essential component of his set – there is no handholding through the show, and we aren’t expected to sit on moments for too long, thanks to his fast-paced recounting. This is exceptionally orchestrated – we don’t need to linger on these moments, which often feel like often-told stories present in the tragedy of drug addiction.

This is a performer with a lot of potential going forward – a bigger stage would naturally benefit Wolf, who shows his chops as an entertainer with several gasp-moments, making sure that while he is both blunt in delivery, he can also compellingly tell a personal anecdote. This is a brilliant showcase – hats off to Wolf.

This production was reviewed in preview ahead of the Fringe at Union Hall, New York