Review: I’m Not Being Funny, Bush Theatre

Jerome Yates and Tia Bannon in I’m Not Being Funny, Bush Theatre. Photo: Richard Lakos I’m Not Being Funny at the Bush Theatre is a play which at one point has you laughing at Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On and then later crying during the same song. It is a bittersweet story of a young couple with a 3-year-old child, forced to face a future no one wants to think about. Billie (Tia Bannon) has signed up her and her husband, Peter (Jerome Yates), for an open mic night. With daughter Ruby tucked up in bed, they retreat to their living room to work out a ‘tight five’ of stand-up. They recreate the stand-up setting with karaoke mics and a lamp acting as a spotlight. Peter’s approach is jokes of the dad variety, Billie’s is stories, but soon they start drawing on the past for inspiration. As they reminisce, we flash back through their shared history as a couple, revealing first meetings and kisses to starting a family. It slowly builds to a revelation and the reason for the stand-up.…