Colm McGlinchey: Fringe 2012
Live Review
Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters

Colm McGlinchey rolls with the punches this midnight, free show throws at him. His venue is smaller than some comedians’ posters, the audience is chatty, and a French couple arrive midway through, make a fuss of getting to their seats in the front row. Then leave after a full15 seconds.

The affable McGlinchey is resident compere of a gig in his native Dublin, and takes it all in his stride. It might even be helpful to him, as even with interruptions, his show runs just under 40 minutes. Which in the event is fine, it does not need to be longer.

As an extended stand-up set, it’s not heavy on themes. He asks where we’re all from, jokes about how he’s half Irish, half Scottish – a  crowdpleasing move with this audience demographic – then does quite a bit of traditional ‘oh, what are we Irish like?’ material that’s reasonably amusing.

There’s nothing spectacular in any of this: talking us through a weird, if old, news story with commentary (in his case the gorilla who ripped a woman’s face of); a few tales of home life sharing a flat with a number of other young lads; and even a rather gratuitous mention of a midget.

It’s all done with good humour, and with such a small room, the stand-up cliché of ‘like being in the pub with your mates’ rings true, as the funny one in the group holds court.

He sometimes doesn’t set things up particularly elegantly, and still refers to his notes occasionally,  and if you’re looking for something of substance, this is not the place you’ll find it.

But for this particular time, place and situation, McGlinchey gets the job done and has modest crowd in the palm of his hand.