People place too much stock in things making sense. As a species we have, at various times, worshipped dog headed Gods, sat people on steel boxes full of high explosives so as to launch them into space, filled stadiums with tens of thousands of people so they could scream at someone running quite fast and piled big rocks up like giant’s Lego. Granted people are always looking for ways to rationalise it all, but at the heart of it humanity just has a long standing love for doing strange shit. We love it. At the lowest level we call it being eccentric, at the highest we take a few thousand years to see a: that it was mad and b: go mad enough to make it seem sane again. It’s what we do and hey, everyone needs a hobby. Dogs chase balls, cats hate and humans turn absurd. Milo McCabe is definitely human.
Milo McCabe’s one man (with many faces) show Genisisocide does have a plot. It even makes sense. If you wrote it down and drew lines from part to part there’d be no dead ends or MC Escher distortions thrown in there. It is however a plot which gleefully makes no sense right up until the point where you look back and see your footprints treading a clear line through the dune-scape of Milo’s mind.
Using an ensemble cast of what could loosely be called impressions McCabe revels in the side notes. Flitting from character to character and idea to idea without ever really losing sight of where the narrative’s going. I won’t say too much about that, the story itself. This review would grow to a tedious length if I tried and what’s more I’d end up having to recreate the whole thing here in front of my screen just to try and translate it into some coherent written form. But to give you the slightest of ideas it involves Bob Geldof, Phil Collins, Phil Collin, Elton John, murder, time travel, more murder and ’90s European Techno. Although at precisely the same time it doesn’t involve any of those things so much as it involves Milo McCabe’s brilliantly eclectic mind.
I have seen some people saying Genesisocide is truly fringe and far from most peoples idea of easy viewing and while it’s certainly not for every audience I wouldn’t go that far myself. What Milo does here is another form from a proud tradition of absurdism. From the Bonzo Dog Band through to Reeves & Mortimer and even my own Laikanist Times (*cough* available now *cough*) there are plenty of people out there embracing the ridiculous with greater or less amounts of depth behind them. It may offer a bit of a shock at first but given a chance it’s a wonderful world of oddity to slip into. Although I will add that, as a stand-up, Milo drives for the laughs and there’s not an ocean of profundity behind the act (*cough*not like Laikanist Times *cough*). That’s no negative though because not making sense, when done right, is an end unto itself and a thoroughly worthwhile one at that. So if you get a chance go and see Genesisocide.
Unfortunately I reckon this show is a Fringe special but I did also see Milo in another show where he stuck to just one personality and all of the same quality was there. Plus I’d be far from surprised if he turned up on TV one day, in one way or another. At the very least someone should throw a few quid at him to give it a try. Otherwise it’s definitely another name to keep an eye out for, starting with following him on Twitter (@MiloComedy). You can also check out his Edinburgh gigs with Gensisocide here if you’re lucky enough to be in town and it’s free, which is always nice.