Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

He’s already had a significant hand in reinvigorating British comedy this year as head writer on the phenomenal UK version of Saturday Night Live, so it’s ambitious for Daran ‘Jonno’ Johnson to also choose this moment to take his first plunge into stand-up. 

Until now, he was best known as one-third of the sketch trio Sheeps, where, among other talents, he was the musical engine room. It’s apt then that he starts with an a cappella number about an office crush that gradually reveals an insanely bizarre, slightly creepy world, a song which combines his talents for a tune with SNL UK’s more outrageously absurd sensibilities. And wonderfully performed, too.

The assertion this is a purely stand-up show is then clearly somewhat off the mark, as the monologues are peppered with clever and inventive skits. 

These include a medley of alternative James Bond themes that he has written, deploying dumb misdirection with every verse, an ill-fated attempt at an improvised comedy rap, and the fabulous showstopper, in which he acts out a full-blown West End musical, but from the perspective of just one member of the chorus. 

He is, however, less assured in the pure stand-up sections, in which he addresses the personal issues such as rejection, anxiety and avoidance that have held him back in his career. 

Jonno is open and frank about these issues, often using a ‘stool of sincerity’ device to signal when he’s telling the truth rather than just joking around. But combining this frankness with the sort of funny that emerges naturally from the vulnerability eludes him, probably as he hasn’t done the hard hours gigging as a stand-up that would make this come more naturally.

Like SNL itself, then, the hour is hit and miss – with the impressive highs of invention and execution more than compensating for the bits that don’t quite fire.

Review date: 10 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy Club