© Natasha Pszenicki
John-Luke Roberts: What I Talk About When I Run About, Talking
Edinburgh Fringe comedy review
Stripping away the high concepts that have hallmarked all his previous shows, this year John-Luke Roberts is going for pure and simple stand-up - no speaking like Geoffrey Chaucer, no stuffing his suit full of balloons to represent his dad, just having a chat. Yet even as he strives to join the relatable mainstream (ideal timing for getting onto Live At The Apollo, he wryly notes), this uniquely inventive comedian is never going to be pedestrian.
He notes that stand-ups need to pigeonhole themselves in the broadest terms, restricted to two descriptors such as ‘posh and gay’ at most. However, he resolutely refuses to ‘squash my multitudes down’ to fit an easily identifiable persona.
You'd have to broadly classify him as the smart-stupid one based on a couple of brilliant early routines. Boasting that he has ‘strident opinions,’ he launches into a faux-edgy rant about babies screaming on a plane, controversially wishing more power to their tiny elbows. Material about the likes of Skechers shoes has its roots in everyday observation, but inspires a creative train of thought to expertly magnify a small incongruity.
He trained as a clown, but the delight here is in the playfully precise use of words, images and rhythm, rather than anything overtly physical. His routine summarising Freudian versus Jungian psychology is amazingly stupid, given greater impact as he sets it up with such authority, and demonstrates his skill in taking intellectual starting points, but making them daft.
Gradually, those multitudes within his personality expand out of the relatively simple sketches as he – or rather his therapist – suggests that the uniquely strange places his brain goes to, diagnosed as ruminative OCD, are an attempt to distract from his mortality. Yet a health scare, and the death of a close friend, brought the prospect of inevitable demise very close to home.
He eases back on the absurdity to let the more thoughtful narrative unfold, but we're never too far away from a wonderful line or a sketch - or even sometimes a dramatically-performed poem or even some zen-like aphorisms.
Roberts is at his best in the ridiculous act-outs, fully committing to rant-adjacent performances as he advances daft arguments. Yet elsewhere there are beautifully constructed one-liners, twisting logic or words into unexpected places.
He uses this hour to celebrate humanity's shared experiences - a kick back against the silos of algorithm-driven entertainment and the atomisation of culture. But in marking what makes us all the same, there can be no denying that Roberts’ brain is uniquely different - and we can surely celebrate that too.
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Published: 7 Aug 2026
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Past Shows
Edinburgh Fringe 2021
Alternative Comedy Memorial Society [Ed Fringe 2021]
John-Luke Roberts: It Is Better - Live!
Edinburgh Fringe 2022
John-Luke Roberts: A World Just Like Our Own, But...
John-Luke Roberts: Terrible Wonderful Adaptations
Edinburgh Fringe 2025
John-Luke Roberts: Terrible Wonderful Adaptations
John-Luke Roberts: Work in Progress
Joz Norris and John-Luke Roberts are Barry and Tony in The Baritones
Agent
We do not currently hold contact details for John-Luke Roberts's agent. If you are a comic or agent wanting your details to appear here, for a one-off fee of £59, email steve@chortle.co.uk.