Review by Steve Bennett

What a strange brew this expat Australian serves up: an infusion of painful ‘dad gags’, inventive one-liners, surreal stories and beat-backed poetry. But when you buy tickets for a show called Why Is A Lettuce?, convention is probably not top of your shopping list.

At its best, H Anthony Hildebrand’s awkward manner is reminiscent of last year’s top award-winner Tim Key, but much of the show’s presentational paraphernalia – and too many weak puns – prove its downfall, despite some splendidly inventive lines en route.

To create an atmosphere, the amiable if semi-detached Hildebrand has employed a Nineties drum machine to lay a soporific rhythm behind his quips, in the vague spirit of Chris Morris’s Jam. Unfortunately ‘soporific’ is not the best background for live comedy, so the mood is never going to be uproarious.

In some attempt to string together his non-sequiturs, pained wordplay and flipboard-displayed visual gags, Hildebrand has concocted some nonsense story about a trip to South American in search of Robert Mugabe. His reasons why are not apparent, as the set-up is just the lazy surrealism of random ideas, which detracts from the gags rather than joining them into a neat narrative.

And what of those jokes? About half are forced, for which a groan is really the only acceptable response; but among the remainder are some beautifully oddball ideas and genuinely warped puns. The answer to the titular question lies somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Why A Lettuce? Cos…

It’s that typical Edinburgh debut in which 20 minutes of top-grade material is diluted to make the hour, but there is certainly an odd wit lurking within.

Review date: 15 Aug 2010
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett