Benny Boot's Def Con 4 provided an hour of relentless, quick fire gags. He begins the show with a breakdown of his show, almost becoming his own compere and he seems keen to point out at the beginning that sometimes jokes 'die'. And indeed this is fairly apposite, as not all of Benny's one liners work. He also warns us cautiously he hasn't prepared enough material for the hour which becomes clear as the hour trundles along.
When Boot's surreal witticisms do hit the mark they are hilarious in their intricacies and more often than not the jokes land quite emphatically. However, through a combination of his laissez faire style and moments of forgetfulness, the whole hour felt a little stunted and failed to create any real momentum. This wasn't helped by the 'light hearted banter' with the audience which felt a little laboured and didn't really take off with an otherwise co-operative crowd. The hour ends on a high as Benny talks his way through a brilliant guitar ditty but the stop start nature of his routine didn't build up to the crescendo that this final bit deserved.
Boot is not a polished performer and such is the nature of his comedy that there are times when he's caught pondering, staring into the middle distance, thinking through a few seconds of silence about his next joke. There's certainly a roughness to his routine and at times it feels as if he's delivering a work in progress. He lacks the slick delivery of some of his peers which isn't necessarily a criticism as other comedians could be accused of rattling through a carefully prepared script night after night, Benny Boot's routine feels a little more genuine and variable.
Boot is an offbeat, quirky and at times very funny comedian. There was enough on show to highlight his talents but he's still something of a raw talent.