This show is meta-theatrical in every way possible as Luke Wright navigates his way through explaining life as a performance poet, googling his own name and the effect of non-fame upon his ego. The poetry is woven into the stories in such a way that it borders on stand up comedy and he leaps from topic to topic with such confidence that the one hour show seems much, much shorter.
From the inclusion of one of his early teenage poems about a car crash in which a severed head rolls across the view on the TV screen to his Grotty Hotel which chronicles the 'joy' of touring, all of the poems are performed with both humour and passion. The mental image of him eating 'medium cheese' with a plastic spoon whilst sitting in a Travelodge in his underpants may never quite leave me. I'll also laugh every time I see someone in black drainpipe trousers who is perhaps just a little too old for them.
This description of the trousers is a very important element to the show as his dawning realisation that maybe when he wore them he wasn't quite as cool as he thought he was prompted much of the material to be included. His main question is this 'how did the humble desire to be adored by millions turn into an ego trip?'
The answer, it seems, is modern technology.
The idea that you can measure how famous you are is not new but the invention of Google and Google statistics is and I'm very sure Luke Wright is not the only person to have entered his name. His brilliant and seemingly true story of mistaken Google identity leads to his entry as 'foppish buffoon' being the first hit in searches. Try it, it's true.
Revealing much more would ruin the fun but suffice it to say Luke's words and a projector screen full of goodies are enough to have you laughing a lot and thinking too. His poems may talk of 'hollow applause' but none of it was empty at The Old Red Lion.