Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Whenever people learn Jacob Nussey works in an Amazon warehouse, the question is always the same: is it as bad they say? This is the long answer.

The short answer is that it’s boring, which is something of an obstacle when you want to talk about it for 50 minutes, a challenge which Nussey never fully overcomes. 

It’s not helped by the fact he doesn’t have the most expressive face or voice. While he telling us what it’s like to work in the fulfilment centre near his Mansfield home, it feels like it’s at a remove. However, a self-aware gag notes that his monotonous tone perfectly encapsulates the boredom of the job.

There’s not even much contact with co-workers which might have provided more colour to his account. Instead, ‘it’s just you, the robots and your thoughts,’ Nussey muses grimly.

Workers are told to work through potential emergencies, are scanned by metal detectors to make sure they are not on the take, and the walls are plastered with Amazon’s Peccy mascot and corporate principles like ‘customer obsession’ – which sounds dystopian. Meanwhile words like ‘union’ are banned from the in-house app.

This and stories about other jobs he’s done – including sorting waste in a recycling centre and clearing asbestos – give insight into the precarious life of an agency worker.

He also includes some material on wider personal topics  such as  his ethnic ambiguity – he’s quarter Sri Lankan – meaning a racist Encounter turns in to a trivia quiz. While recognising that most comedians, and comedy audiences, are middle class, he attempts connection by telling us he once tried asparagus, 

A sobering thought is that Amazon treats workers so appallingly not just because of Jeff Bezos’s geed – though Nussey has something to say about that– but because we turn a blind eye. ‘Amazon is more convenient than we are moral’ – he says, followed by bleaker analogy about how the company treats its workers that ought to make everyone feel a little guilty.

However, despite all the interesting, funny and social elements, Primed as a whole feels undercooked, which may well speak to the recently aired concerns that working-class comics don’t have the luxury of polishing their offering in the same way better-supported acts do. Ironically, given the Amazon subject matter it’s not especially well-packaged or delivered, but the core contents are sound.

Review date: 19 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard