Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Carl Donnelly’s shows these days feel very casual, each new one just a handful of low-key stories from the previous year’s events, suffused with the natural warmth of his personality.

What’s striking about the last year is that he could easily have made something much more intense, but has deliberately zagged away from the narrative that he knows would have got him more attention.

 After the death of his father, his mother being put into care for dementia, and near-death experiences for both Donnelly himself and his four-year-old daughter, he would have been forgiven for making a bit of art out of his suffering, but as he jokes: ‘If you get a good one of those shows, you’ve got a Baby Reindeer on your hands, but a bad one could be catastrophic… This is an exercise in sweeping things under the carpet.’

On this particular evening, he’s battling the elements. The intense heat, the roaring of the electric fans, and a handful of punters who are completely in their own world, not to mention the Hive’s famous smell – none of it puts a dent in his relaxed composure, and why should it?

As an anecdote about playing to a 400-seater composed entirely of stag parties proves, he’s faced much, much worse. If he handled that gig with ease - and he largely did - this one is not going to pose him much trouble.

The events of the last year – especially his brush with a bacterial infection that gave him massive internal bleeding – provide ample opportunity for him to cover a couple of comedy standards: getting a colonoscopy and almost shitting himself on the bus. It's also cause for a few reflections on getting older, and how the wild drinking tales of his 20s and 30s have given way to a different state of being. 

You would never accuse him of being wildly experimental, but it doesn’t really matter that you may have heard these topics covered elsewhere: from Donnelly’s perspective, they sound fresh and funny, delivered with an assured panache. 

It's a bit like getting tucked into some kind of leather-upholstered, air-conditioned car, you can just tell you're in for a smooth ride from the outset. His beatifically calm South London geezer personality is just wonderful to bask in, even if it’s achieved by sweeping things under the rug.

Review date: 19 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy Club