Review by Steve Bennett

Brett Goldstein studied feminism for his degree. He’s also studied a veritable Everest of pornography, but that was more of a hobby.

Contains Scenes Of An Adult Nature is an ambitious attempt to make a serious point about what’s available online and its toxic nature, to both the consumer of the images and society as a whole, as well as the wider sexualisation of the world, all combined with an epic personal story that picks up where his 2011 debut left off.

‘It’s going to make a lot of you uncomfortable, and no woman is going to want to have sex with me,’ is how he sums it up at the start. A lose-lose situation

That earlier show told of how he grew up essentially managing the Marbella strip club his father set up in the throes of a mid-life crisis. After that he went to New York to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, and to try to secure a more balanced relationship with women after being exposed to that fake fantasy world for so long.

As discussed in this show, his US trip turned out to be a battle between his sensitive intellectual side and his more repressed, primal urge to shag. That part is epitomised his ‘hump-em-and-dump-em’ neighbour Cormac, who urges Goldstein down the same path – especially when he meets a younger girl with whom he has a spark.

Maybe it’s just his honesty about sex, combined with advancing a sociological point, but at times Goldstein sounds reminiscent of a calmed-down Russell Brand, not so linguistically extravagant. And that’s no bad thing.

The storytelling element, culminating in a post-9/11 blackout when New Yorkers thought the end was nigh, is captivating; and the serious point he made are driven home with a rare passion that’s hard to fake (unless the AADA did a particularly fine job). There’s some friction as the narrative and the polemic rub against each other, but Goldstein is clearly keen to use the privilege of stand-up to make his point.

He delivers food for thought, as well as a compelling yarn, and I suspect he may be wrong about losing his attractiveness to women. He’s right about some of the less comfortable moments; but it’s in a good cause and always alleviated with a jolly quip. It’s adult comedy, not just because of its content, but because it’s a mature look at a subject usually mined for cheap jokes.

Review date: 3 Aug 2013
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett