Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Most comedy fans will likely be familiar with Rob Auton’s shtick by now. Once seen, never forgotten in a way – he ploughs a unique furrow, but one show is very much like another. This remains true of his new hour Jupiter.

Like last year’s show Can, it’s notionally a sort of play rather than just a straight-up monologue, and sees Auton play three characters: an estate agent based on Jupiter as well as his two clients, a couple who are considering moving to Earth.

It’s another pretext for Auton to do his thing: looking at the world around him with a childlike amazement and asking questions like, ‘Where did house plants used to live before there were houses?’

Auton has a wonderful mind for these sorts of ponderings, and you can’t help but respect his dedication to his particular tone – he really does seem like a guileless sage, perpetually open to the world and able to see the best in it. ‘I can’t believe I ever got used to elephants existing’ he intones over ambient swells on the soundtrack.

It’s also great that he’s experimenting with new formats, but he hasn’t quite nailed it in Jupiter. The multiple characters are not distinguished from each other at all in their outlook, so all they add is confusion over who’s supposed to be talking. 

It feels like he has yet to fully commit to the dramatised format. Where his older shows forced him to focus on one topic and explore its comedic potential from every angle, Jupiter and Can have both widened his purview to include the whole of human experience at once, with the result that he drifts somewhat aimlessly between moments of awe. 

When I started finding Auton’s shows less effective, I was worried I was losing my own sense of wonder, but I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s just that he produces slightly too much material – excepting Covid, he's put out a new show every year since 2012, as well as a book and a daily podcast. Even he must eventually start scraping the bottom of the wonderment barrel. 

If his material were more concentrated and more occasional, I think we’d begin to see an Auton renaissance. In the meantime, if it’s been a while since you’ve seen him, he’s still his own man, has a lot of good lines, and is very much worth catching up with. The universe never gets less amazing, and Rob Auton never gets less amazed.

Review date: 20 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Assembly Roxy