Review: The Adventures of Tawny Owl

Tawny Owl, a full-time musician and musical comedian, is touring the UK with his multi-genre show, The Adventures of Tawny Owl.

Earlier this month, Tawny Owl performed in a small room at Exeter Phoenix, providing audiences with an intimate and wonderfully random show.

The hour-and-a-half-long show quite literally takes you on a journey through time and across countries, centred around a vengeful main storyline involving a villain, a cheese-selling best friend, and baldness.

For a one-man musical comedy show, Tawny Owl adds considerable depth to his performance through audio prompts and acoustic guitar work. 

The pre-recorded voice of his "best friend" creates a unique and funny dynamic on stage, featuring witty back-and-forths and self-deprecating banter that blur the lines of reality for some brilliantly absurd comedic tension.

Brandishing his dependable catchphrase, "It's owl right," Tawny Owl shrugs off the narrative's turbulent ups and downs and remains upbeat on his mission to support his friend, whose wife has recently cheated on him with a certain iconic character from a book by C.S. Lewis.

The Adventures of Tawny Owl is filled with pop-culture references, though some fell a tad short, being a little too obscure for most of the audience to recognise.

For me, the highlight of the show was Tawny Owl’s musical talent. His powerful singing voice and catchy guitar hooks produced some seriously impressive ballads and rap songs that advanced the story.

Tawny Owl’s comedy is best described as safe rather than politically incorrect or subversive.

It offers fun, light-hearted entertainment with a more well-rounded narrative than one would typically expect to see from a comedy show.

Tawny Owl finds that delicate balance between audience interaction and comedic storytelling; however, it would be appreciable to see more improvised and organic conversations with audience members as Tawny Owl's comedic career becomes more established.

Overall, a highly enjoyable evening, and you should be sure to catch The Adventures of Tawny Owl before it finishes its UK tour!

It runs until November 28, and you can view all locations and venues here.