Dougie Dunlop [2007]

Note: This review is from 2007

Review by Steve Bennett

Dougie Dunlop is the Ronseal of stand-up comedians, to use a cliched but apt analogy. No frills, no nonsense, he just does exactly what he says on the tin.

With the sort of innocuous banter it’s hard to imagine anyone caring either way about, you can just imagine him onstage at Jongleurs, reliably coming up with the goods for mainstream audiences looking for simple Friday night laughs.

He has jokes about old people being a bit slow and liking tea, musings on women being fast at text messaging – it’s the sort of stuff you can hear at any provincial comedy club and about as unique as Tesco’s.

Often, of course, that’s as much as an audience looks for, and it seems unlikely he has any shortage of gigs. But there’s something distinctly soulless about his approach.

Dunlop, it seems, realises his place as a comedian and knows he can get along just fine churning out the same gags to the same sort of people without bothering to up his game. Even with a more demanding Fringe crowd, he seems to have decided to stick to business as usual and hope it passes muster.

The show is smooth enough and rolls along uneventfully, apart from one inexplicably aggressive outburst from a departing audience member.

Dunlop is a competent performer and the gags rain down easily and consistently, to ready laughter. But if you’re looking for comedy that does more than fill an hour quite pleasantly, look elsewhere.

Reviewed by:Nione Meakin

Review date: 1 Jan 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

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