Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Rosco McClelland freely admits his show is not as polished as those that have secured him such acclaim in the last couple of years, including winning him the 2025 Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow award.

He’s still working with notes and editing which routines to do or drop on the fly. But it highlights his natural skill as a comedian that none of this is of any great detriment to the hour. Ultimately, he's a funny guy who knows how to tell a funny story. The rest is gravy.

Vaguely, the show’s premise is that he has a syndrome called Pathological Demand Avoidance – which might sound to an untrained ear like a medicalisation of straightforward stubbornness. It’s characterised by a rejection of advice or simple, everyday demands or requests, and even McClelland suggests such behaviour might just be down to the contrariness that comes with being Scottish and working-class. 

It’s also a handy disorder for a comedian to have, because many an anecdote contains something that can be pegged on to it, bringing the monologue back – however tangentially – to his PDA, creating the semblance of structure. The condition makes sense of a pivotal story about an argument with his now wife, but at the biggest stretch, McClelland says something like ‘you know who doesn’t have PDA? Dogs’ to introduce his dog bit. 

Segues may be a bit sticky, but with a repertoire of topics that range from earwax to the hardened criminal who wants him dead, the leaps won’t always be easy.

But it doesn’t matter much, given McClelland’s innate skills at drawing the funny out of any situation or story. He’s taken a leaf out of Sir Billy's book in delivering in a passionate conversational style, moving fast and exaggerating the details with mini act-outs, while having a knack for spotting the absurd. Nor is he beyond throwing in a daft pun or two, just to grease the wheel, and there are more than a couple of beauties here. 

Even a story about his brief taste of fame – garnered when  he went viral with a Scotland World Cup anthem set to the Cheers theme tune – shines, even though many comics have similar anecdotes. The only real misstep is a bit about the resources AI data centres consume, which vents his genuine concern without landing on good enough jokes. 

McClelland does serve up a last-minute personal revelation, which could have been used to centre the whole hour – but it’s not that kind of awards-bait show. The comedian also has a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why he didn't want to dwell on it, although it’s also obvious he’s easily good enough not to need the dramatic impetus.

Review date: 11 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy (Cabaret Voltaire)