Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a film with the premise “What if Jeffrey Epstein was a superhero?”

Doctor Strange is a dapper silver fox who lives in a well-appointed townhouse in Manhattan. His relationship with an age-appropriate woman fails and so he takes in an exotic underage teen runaway. Everyone wants to drain her essence and Doctor Strange is tempted to do that as well.

Then Doctor Strange hooks up with a woman closer to his age, Ghislaine Maximoff, who shows an interest in the teen, but secretly wants to drain her essence too.

At one point Doctor Strange tells his age-appropriate former love interest that he wants true love one day but he ‘gets scared’, and apparently she buys this low-grade fuckboi excuse. I’m sure that’s the kind of thing Jeffrey told Ghislaine to get out of marrying her.

The teen can’t control her power/erotic capital at the start, but Doctor Strange grooms and mentors her until she can. It’s like that Epstein girl who went on to become a successful pilot/influencer.

There are some good scenes in this film - hopping between weird dimensions is always fun, and Sam Raimi is still a great director - but it’s crammed with too many ideas and characters. You need to have seen the Disney+ WandaVision series to understand what’s going on. Just like Epstein, Doctor Strange is involved with the Illuminati, which in the MCU consists of characters you’ve vaguely heard of but never seen like Peggy Carter, Mister Fantastic and Captain Picard.

Also the teen is called America, which makes for frequent confusing lines of dialogue like “We need to get to America before it’s too late!”. 3 stars out of 5.

My gig dates

Monday May 9th 7:30pm - Double Bubble, Dalston

I think they’re ditching the voting format for this one. It’s always a good night with a pro headliner.

The Victoria, 451 Queensbridge Road, London E8 3AS

Tuesday May 10th 7pm - Gap Tooth, Pimlico

Small room so book now if you want to see me try some new stuff.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gap-tooth-comedy-tuesdays-tickets-230002984117

Constitution pub, 42 Churton St, London SW1V 2LP

NEW DATE: Friday May 20th 10:45pm - Roast Battle UK FINAL

The epic final round of Roast Battle UK. You’ll see multiple rounds of verbal combat with the winner staying on. If I win this they are going to send me to San Francisco to battle Ken from Street Fighter 2.

https://dice.fm/event/ada7q-roast-battle-uk-the-final-20th-may-the-bill-murray-london-tickets

The Bill Murray, 39 Queen's Head St, London N1 8NQ

Monday May 30th 7:30pm - Nice N Spiky, Islington

Comfy downstairs space at a nice pub that serves good food. Free.

The Regent, 201 Liverpool Rd Islington, London N1 1LX

Recommendation

If you’re in Brighton, go and see Donal Vaughan doing Science Magic XXX on Sunday 29th May. I’ve seen a preview of this show and it’s amazing. Not just stand-up, it involves some magic tricks too.