Elis James: The Most Cautious Little Boy In Wales – Fringe 2009
Live Review

This could be a very difficult review to write; for when I check back my notes from the show, I find I wrote almost nothing – I’d been far too caught up in what this effusive young Welshman was saying for any of that.

Except, that is, for the start, that is, when his fruitless bantering with the audience frustrated me, as there’s no need for such overt ‘where you from?’ compering at a solo show.

Elis James is from South Wales, since he’s asking, and this show is an evocative look at life growing up in a modestly provincial lower-middle-class life in the Eighties. His was a home where Mum would cook only seven dishes, so Monday was always pork chop night, for instance, and where the local theme park had a roller-coaster so tame you could fix pocket-watches on it.

You can see why he grew up to be as risk-adverse as the title suggests, especially given that when he does try something new, embarrassment seems to strike – as proven by the hilarious mix-up at the local swimming baths. Let’s just say that who he thought was his girlfriend, wasn’t.

The ambiance is as warm as the room – a regulation Edinburgh sweatbox – and he’s so naturally eager to please that the anecdotes and observations flow freely, with an endearing wit and fine sense of timing and pace. It all seems to come very easily to him.

Aptly enough, given his caution, this is not a show of great revelation or huge ambition, but it does successfully showcase 28-year-old James’s talents as one of the most promising emerging acts around. Now that’s got to be worth risking a fiver on.