Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Larry Dean has written a love letter to his partner from the Black Country. He’s also written a show that will get you smiling from ear to ear – in a very unchallenging, gorgeously sickly sweet sort of way. 

Centred on the two questions he asked his now-husband in Edinburgh – the most recent being ‘Will you marry me?’ and the first, ‘Am I a disappointment?’ – it tracks the anxieties surrounding his engagement: whether he was good enough, and the scars past relationships had left him carrying.

Dean hasn’t got the attention some of his fellow Saturday Night Live castmates received, but he more than proves why he was cast here. His gift for accents shines bright. Can he capture the subtle differences between Black Country and Birmingham? Absolutely. Two different Americans, too? You bet. 

It is a neat, meticulously crafted stage persona that sends the room into fits of laughter with every transformation. But it is also one we’ve seen before. Dean is forever reliable but – dare I say it? – safe.

We get updates on the autism diagnosis he explored in his last show, Dodger, as well as an insight into the mind of his partner, who has OCD and is, apparently, the nicest person Dean has ever met. Dressed in a smoking jacket in honour of their shared love of rock 'n' roll, the whole hour is a tribute to the joy of finding someone who loves you exactly as you are.

There’s material for the masses, too. He proposed to his boyfriend beside some wheelie bins, while a routine about appearing on the Royal Variety Performance and forgetting to bow to the King gives him the chance to show off an excellent royal impression. He quizzes audience members with autism to see whether they enjoy laughing about their diagnosis too. Throughout, he remains nothing less than an easy-going, permanently grinning companion.

Forever endearing, it is impossible not to have a good time with Dean. It may not push comedy into new territories, but gosh, what a joy.

Review date: 30 Aug 2026
Reviewed by: Anya Ryan
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard