It’s a mark of a good festival that it encourages local acts to develop their own solo shows, rather than simply relying on tours passing through - and Manchester has always had a healthy handful of examples.

This is one of them: Ben Schofield’s first full-length offering; and only the second time he’s ever performed it. The ultimate aim is obviously Edinburgh, but it’s also presented as a Manchester comedy festival show in its own right.

He won’t have to do much work on his delivery in the eight months before the Fringe. He puts in a big performance in such a small room, full of energy, passion and verve. It’s slightly hectoring, with his hefty physical statue adding to the overpowering presence, but it works in a Mitch Benn kind of way.

The theme of Don’t Panic is ostensibly phobias. He, himself, professes to suffer nictophobia – or fear of the dark – and it would have been interesting to hear him elaborate. Instead it opens up the way for him to speak of other fears, such as the fear of rejection in relationships, or fear of embarrassment. They’re both more familiar comedy staples, but he illustrates the subject matter with a couple of entertaining anecdotes.

He gets even more generic when he talks of the things the newspapers tell us to be scared of: terrorism (weren’t the Glasgow Airport bombers rubbish), climate change (ooh, we’ll get nicer weather) and binge drinking. Although media-savvy, Schofield paints with too broad a brush here, with all-too obvious thoughts that offer nothing new.

The ‘fear’ theme may be a neat way of putting all these things together – and Don’t Panic is structurally robust – but the components aren’t advancing anything that isn’t already known; so the show runs out of steam too early.

Still, eight months is a long time in comedy; and plenty of time to address that biggest fear of any performer going to Edinburgh: athazagoraphobia – the fear of being overlooked or ignored.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
October 2007