Abstraction is not Simon Pearce’s thing. Although he is a trained and practicing actor, he slips, unlike classic political cabaret artists, type cabaret artists or many comedians – and Pearce, like so many today, is both: stylistically a classic stand-up, thematically also a cabaret artist – not or at most as a short one parodic punch line in other characters. No, Pearce remains Pearce on the stage and negotiates his themes almost exclusively from his own point of view, which has been sharpened by lifelong discrimination, and from his own experiences. He involves his wife, mother and child in the most intimate way, as is only possible in an actor and film family used to being in the public eye.
“Hybrid” is the title and theme of the new program presented in the Lustspielhaus, and unlike the two previous solos, this no longer only refers to his origins, but also to his age. Now over 40, father and husband with a “substitute teacher appearance”, the problems and topics change as a “link between young and old”: age-appropriate, “nicely meant” racism, semi-prominence, fitness nonsense, seeing through new trends as old shit, even hair problems and “daddy smell” are dealt with vividly, wittily and in general in a targeted manner. Often “freestyle” is best, i.e. when Pearce makes spontaneous associations and works with the audience.
Again and again it boils down to the fact that everyone can change if you just talk to each other and learn from each other. So this evening was not only very funny, but also a kind of object lesson on what you can do to become a little better person. Very specific.