Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

This is a rare solo outing from Graham Dickson, whose distinctive face you may have seen on posters surrounded by other improv artists. 

Creator of St. Doctor’s Hospital and founder member of Austentatious, he’s also an accomplished comic actor with credits including King Baby, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival this week. This new show uses that life of a jobbing actor as its inspiration, with Dickson playing very much to type as a ‘posh dweeb’ who’s trying to put on an Edinburgh show but keeps having to halt proceedings to do urgent self-tapes on a ring light camera. ‘What’s that you say? They need the tape in an hour? That seems contrived.’

Blessed with a pleasingly husky lisp, Dickson has an actor’s charisma on stage, and is fully believable in the audition scenes, most of which are beautiful examples of pastiche. Particularly enjoyable is the ludicrous young adult fantasy series based around kingdoms of warring crabs,  in which Dickson plays a jocular elder delivering exposition to a princess. The Fringe show within a Fringe show is also very silly, appearing to revolve around a pulp detective in a version of New York City inhabited entirely by moths.

Dickson allows a lot of space for audience contribution, getting participants to play various characters in his life, like his best friend or his father. It’s here that he gets to show off his improv skills and crack through the mannered shell of his own construction. He’s at his best when diving for the curveballs that the audience throw him and adapting his script on the fly to incorporate what his participants are saying.

It’s in the spaces between the improv and the scripted set pieces that the show sometimes falters. There’s quite a lot of in-character faffing as the actor struggles to prioritise the various demands on his time, which is realistic but makes the momentum a little sludgy. A more streamlined approach might help clarify the narrative a bit – like many shows this year, this one has a subplot about the performer having recently been left by his girlfriend. Is that trope descended from Phil Ellis’ character in Funz & Gamez? 

Wherever it’s from, it’s getting a little commonplace, and is superfluous to this otherwise very entertaining show.

Review date: 22 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Pleasance Dome