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But this is a series of anecdotes too personal to be of much interest to a randomly drawn festival audience. For the most part this is because they are insufficiently insightful and not quite funny enough.

He has some observations about the people of Man, his island of origin, featuring their pessimism, and urge to encourage their own - coming to see him even though they thought he was going to be rubbish. He shares with us one of those laddish pub jokes you can only get if you were there at the time. The atmosphere is jolly enough, but it would be a relief to see some evidence that he has noticed the world beyond his nose.

Heeney is a friendly, smiley sort of a guy who probably, in the final reckoning, doesn’t want to have kids, but completely fails to make his audience care either way in the 45 minutes since he first brought it up. The odd laugh just doesn’t ameliorate any irritation with his self-absorption.

Reviewed by: Chloe Smith