Kevin Bridges [Edinburgh 2010]
Live Review

Kevin Bridges’s speedy ascent of the comic heights looks set to continue.  Still only 23 and just five years into his career, with buckets of TV appearance and stadium gigs under his belt, you do wonder where he can go next.

Luckily he was born old, as his composure and confidence on the big stage here attests.  It’s good to see an unflashy, verbal, easily paced comic completely in control of his room without depending on performance pyrotechnics.  The largely Scottish audience went up as he was announced,  their ‘teeth out for laughing’ to borrow Jimeoin’s phrase.  They also treated his show like a TV appearance, as there was constant traffic to the bar and lavatories.  Wisely he compered himself in with a bit of audience chat for the first five minutes, bravely treating the Music Room like his local club.

He has some cracking stuff in this new show – there are comedians spitting with envy over his ‘empty house’ material, and has he begun expand his range, giving voice to American characters or poncy English TV execs complaining about his accent.  He does it well, but it seems a bit of a soft target for him.

Bridges is insanely popular in Scotland, he appeals to all age groups, he’s not doing young people’s shtick about Twitter, Facebook or Britain’s Got Talent, which is to cannibalise other people’s creations, but keenly analysed social phenomena.  It is good to see a show that whose only ambition is to purvey well honed stand-up without a message or a twist, when there’s so much narrative on offer this year.