Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

No one would ever accuse a Stephen Catling show of being slick, but Clown Fish Out Of Water proves too loose a collection of disjointed, surreal sketches, with the comic too quick to kill whatever momentum he generates.

He also repeatedly stresses how weird he is being. That should definitely go without saying rather than becoming the explicitly stated motif. As he takes off a fish mask to smear shaving foam ‘octopus cum’ over his face, nobody is mistaking him for the mainstream that he repeatedly complains about.

Masks play a big part in his first few skits, an extension of the metaphorical ones he wears to exist in society as an autistic man. And while the show’s title combines two ways he sees himself, the clown fish idea also evokes Finding Nemo and the most mainstream of entertainment providers, Disney. However, teasing bigots who got upset that they cast a black Little Mermaid seems very 2023.

Oasis is another conformist bugbear, especially given their gigs coinciding with the Fringe last year, and Catling ties a non-story about him temporarily losing a slug mask at the festival to a weird fantasy about Noel Gallagher wearing it backstage, but doesn’t bring the audience with him. 

That is a recurring issue with his longer sections that are needed to give the hour texture and some semblance of context. For smashing chocolate boxes together and saying you’re recreating The Matrix is funny for its insanity, but how often can you do something like that before it loses its impact?

He has got some proper jokes, even if they are of wildly inconsistent quality. Some are brilliant – a Willy Wonka song snippet tickled me – some knowingly cheesy, some just fine, and some having a discomforting vibe. We could definitely do without the one about the farmer thinking his cow’s milk tasted weird, only to be told it was a bull. That’s both crass and unoriginal.

Catling has a gentleness that makes the more graphic moments palatable, and the more chaotic elements of the show more charming than they could have been. But throughout there’s a feeling that because his autism makes Catling uncomfortable, now he wants to make it our turn…

Maybe his constant reminders of how peculiar he’s being are meant to alleviate this. But it feels as if the work should stand on its own, not constantly contrasted against the mainstream, especially given we are in a festival where weirdos don’t have to explain themselves. 

In a similar vein, his complaints against generative AI don’t go beyond a grumbled disdain for how it steals artists’ work and consumes resources. Still, it would probably take Grok a long time to think that ripping apart a lettuce could count as entertainment…

Review date: 23 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Hoots @ Potterow