WHEN YOU HAVE the chutzpah to vroom, as fast as your thighs can push onto a largish stage to a live audience, mounted on a Checkers bike made for a toddler, you know that you will have your audience’s attention from the get-go. This is Alan Committie in his latest stand-up show, Fast and (Reasonably) Furious, at the Pieter Toerien Theatre, Montecasino until 3 March.

And with a nod to all the theatre gimmicks, from smoke and lights to doef-doef music, the show begins. It’s a mash up of popular culture with a flip chart or two and logic that often feels like it could be insinuated into Alice in Wonderland, rather than the world in which we live. Mind you, look at the news, social media and the trends that keep us irritated, and you might beg to differ.

Generally clean of political jibes, the work is palatable and easy on the laughs, and while the details are a tad forgettable and maybe obscure if you don’t imbibe all the time in popular culture, the magic ingredient of Committie and his shtick is his affable personality which gives off an aura that you can taste even in the back rows of the theatre. He’s a lovely performer with a personality that makes you feel welcome, sitting there and laughing, or even just sitting there.

Be warned, however, there’s a sharp edge to Committie’s audience engagement and you might not want to unnecessarily embarrass yourself, because he’s got a sharp eye and a quick tongue that may make it an evening out you will never forget. For the wrong reasons. However, if your limelight-seeking muscles are ripe for the handling, go ahead and answer his questions to the audience; he will remember your details and return to them, as he distorts them hilariously out of shape. With a handle on everything from Vin Diesel, Queen and how language works (or doesn’t), to the ghastly repetitive plots in movie franchises to how the innocent babes in the Sound of Music could find themselves in the rough and tumble of the Kit Kat Klub, with a slip of the tongue and a sleight of hand, Committie’s got a strong fan base and a still-growing repartee.

And with 26 years of stand-up comedy under his belt, the man needs a Bells or two. Making an audience laugh for the sake of silliness personified, when you’re alone onstage for 90 minutes, supported by a baby plastic motorbike, is not a task for the lily-livered.

• Fast and (Relatively) Furious is written and performed by Alan Committie. Directed by Christopher Weare and designed by Niall Grifffin, it is on the boards at the Pieter Toerien Theatre, Montecasino complex in Fourways until 3 March 2024.