Elis James: Daytripper
Live Review

There is much to like in the latest storytelling hour from this 29-year-old Welshman, and yet it only brushes the sides of the comedy palate.

Riding a wave of goodwill from last year's show, The Most Cautious Little Boy In Wales, James is now big enough, metaphorically, to be out in the world daytripping on his own, as the title suggests. Naturally, with his underdog persona, he contrives to trip up himself on the way.

His main stumbling block is love, but not in the way you might think as his personal life has had a recent boost. The affair of the heart in question is his slavish fandom of the cult indie band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci who hail from James' hometown of Carmarthen. Already a gawping front row fan at all of their gigs, a number of circumstances conspire to make James appear a bigger stalker than he might otherwise like to be.

Interwoven with this mini epic are routines about dating his new love and, at the top of the show, a dissection of his unsuccessful forays abroad (a theme tied up, to some extent, at the end of his Gorky's story) involving grappling with some continental toilet systems.

It's hard to complain about a set that is delivered so competently by someone who balances vulnerability and cocksureness so well. But this is a great example of something entirely pleasant but that doesn't seize the funny bone and give it a regular work out.

Killed by his own kindness, perhaps, James is eminently watchable and listenable and ploughs a different route to his high-maintenance countryman and friend, Rhod Gilbert. He can't be condemned for subtlety but his approach means that he's hard to love or hate.

If there is a clue to his demographic from the warm audience reaction tonight it would be summed up by likening him to old school rap star LL Cool J, yes, ladies (especially in their twenties) love cool James. 

Sweet.