Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

On stage, the personable Joe Tracini is rarely without a smile on his face. Even confessing: ‘I’ve been thinking about killing myself most days for 15 years,’ barely dents his demeanour. 

And there are a lot of confessions in Ten Things I Hate About Me, which is not a catalogue of regrettable personality quirks but a far more troubling list of the symptoms of his Borderline Personality Disorder.

If you’ve heard about the condition, Tracini explains, it’s because it’s what murderers often say they have when they are trying to mitigate their sentence. Its effects include paranoia, self-destructive behaviour and self-harm.

Needless to say this is not a laugh-a-minute, but nor is it a harrowing dive into an awful situation. Tracini keeps things light, but while it’s entertaining, the show also feels important. Primarily for him to have got this far, and for us to understand the disorder with a straightforward first-hand account. 

His comments on the suicidal thoughts go a long way to explaining the show, saying: ‘It’s better for me to tell you I think about it, than for someone else to tell you I did it.’

Performing has always been in Tracini's blood. He’s Joe Pasquale’s son – he even shares his real name with his dad – and his many panto appearances suggest the apple hasn’t fallen far from the entertainment tree. He spent - or lost – his youth learning magic, rather than something more useful like social skills, has appeared in 165 episodes of Hollyoaks and had a role on BBC Three sitcom Coming Of Age.

But he describes himself as a chocolate Santa wrapped in foil: shiny on the outside, empty on the inside. For his other credits include a breakdown in Greggs, three stints in rehab for drug addiction, and crippling panic attacks.

There are eye-opening stories aplenty here, even dating from before he was diagnosed with the disorder. The lengths to which he went to get out of school are incredible, and not in a good way. And after one rehab stint he was forced into a flat share with a physically huge criminal, which ended in the most absurd encounter, which it’s easy to see the funny side of now.

Tracini’s chipper delivery – even including ukulele songs and a magic trick – keeps a distance between us and the horrors of what happened, which we may be thankful for. 

It also probably helps him tell the story, because even after opening up about his condition in a 2022 book also called Ten Things I Hate About Me, he’s previously frozen when trying to convert it into a stage show. That he’s better now is an uplifting example to demonstrate that even the darkest troubles can be overcome.

Review date: 11 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly Bristo Square