Wankernomics - Just Touching Base
A large screen announces the ‘All-Hands’ meeting and our two presenters take the stage. James Schloeffel and Charles Firth thank everyone for coming, then attempt some fake small talk whilst others dial-in to the ‘Teams call’ or turn up late. Schloeffel and Firth must be used to latecomers, because they seamlessly blend their corporate patter with those unapologetically strolling in and looking for a seat ten minutes after the show started.
If you’ve ever worked in an office, you’ll be familiar with the comedy mined by these two. Whether it’s focusing on clarity (and why being clear is a bad thing), meetings whose sole purpose is to schedule the next meeting, or LinkedIn and why it’s illegal to be anything other than unrealistically positive, there is a PowerPoint slide to cover it.
There are a lot of laughs to be found in the show, though not much that hasn’t been seen elsewhere on social media – the online meetings gags are terribly well worn now after our lockdown experiences. Schloeffel and Firth’s skill is in bringing it all together and presenting it as satire – it’s not just a collection of bad examples in business, but a scarily realistic presentation of corporate-speak everywhere. Why use one word when fifteen words say it much more confusingly? Phrases such as ‘moving forward’ pervade our everyday conversations and are starting to leak into our home lives, so this is a good show to remind us how much we all talk like idiots.
The banter between the two is excellent, and the running backstory about the long overdue visit from the new American owners holds the different segments together – it’s just a shame there isn’t a stronger punchline than realising no-one knows what the company does.
As a post-work outing for a few drinks and a show, it works, but like the corporate world it parodies, it’s hardly innovative or clever.
Review by Mark Wickett
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