Lawrence Leung's Choose Your Own Adventure

Okay, so this is deviating a little from the American mid-season, but let’s pretend that Australia has a “mid-season” too and that this is one of two shows I’ll be reviewing for it...

Lawrence Leung’s Choose Your Own Adventure is a weird show. The premise is such: Lawrence attempts to relive all of the dreams he had as a kid. Be a rock star. Be cool. And in the first episode: tell his grade three crush how he felt about her back then.

LL’s CYOA is basically John Safran light. Where Safran would attempt to join the KKK instead Lawrence asks ex-popstar Tiffany for song writing tips. It isn’t exactly edgy ground breaking stuff.

Lawrence is a nice enough guy and while it’s hard to tell how much of his awkward persona is a put on and how much is actually him the first episode does deliver a handful of good laughs; most of which come from Lawrence’s parents who keep telling him how creepy he’s being.

The premise of giving his grade three crush a letter he wrote back then is a somewhat interesting one, but it’s doubtful there’s really twenty minutes worth of material here. He has to visit Tiffany for song writing tips for some reason, he has to have awkward creepy conversations with not just one but two “love gurus”. It’s all over the shop for a finale which is just as embarrassing as you could predict.

There were a couple of “bits” within the whole show that didn’t really work, like him going to his ten year old cousin for dating advise. Now that’s fine, except when your cousin is a really atrocious actor – even for a ten year old. There were a couple of other moments that seemed a little ‘Chaser-ish’ and a little forced.

In the end shows like this come down to how much you like the guy in front of the camera. At the moment we like Lawrence and will check out more episodes, but I’d hate to be the person who flicks across half way through this show and be left wondering what the hell is going on.

The more we get to know Lawrence the more laughs the show will produce; I don’t expect to see him putting a voodoo curse on his ex-girlfriend or streaking through the streets of Jerusalem or even getting an exorcism but until John Safran is back on our screens I guess Lawrence will have to fill that awkward ABC comedy host void.

Good, Average, Bad or Ugly?
Average