Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Ed Night is back to a decent work rate again, having taken a five-year gap before his 2024 Fringe show, The Plunge. Having amassed a following of 58k on Instagram – largely for his sketches with Paddy Young – perhaps he figured it was time to find out if that converts itself to a decent audience for his live shows. 

The Plunge was his finest hour, a performance that showed he’d developed a fully commanding stage presence. Now, in Your Old Mucker, Night really leans into a high and low approach: he wishes to reference Sylvia Plath, Mozart, Seinfeld and Malala in his comedy. He yearns to be poetic; to juggle literary references, but there’s counterbalancing elsewhere, courtesy of sillier comic ideas, or just some good old-fashioned paedophile jokes.

We’re also invited to guess at how sincerely he envies Richard Gadd’s success, or how likely Gadd is to still take his call if his old pal Ed Night called him up. He has a fun new use of Duolingo. He asks the audience to vote on hearing Steve Irwin material. All fine comic riffs, but are there quite enough of them to fill this show, which Night states he wants to be his ‘magnum opus’? The Fortnum & Mason material, as just one example, is lukewarm rather than sizzling.

If his pre-prepared material this year isn’t good enough to ensure he stands out, luckily both his persona and skill for playing with the artform ensure he still does. Night adopts something of a bad-boy role on stage, which suits him well.  If we’re quarrelling over smaller details, this would all feel maybe a little more commanding if he wasn’t endlessly fiddling with his hair. 

Most pleasingly though, this skill for playing with the performance of comedy itself - for having knotty fun with his audience - appears to be developing in the direction of 2004-era Stewart Lee. Mercifully, he doesn’t go one step too far by simultaneously adopting Lee’s approach to pacing. 

As performance approaches go, it isn’t a particularly crowded space for a comedian to move themselves into, and it certainly suits him well so he’d be wise to keep it up. And can you imagine if he combined that with killer material? True greatness seems achievable.

Review date: 9 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Mark Muldoon
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Hive)