Fringe comedy reviews: Joz Norris: You Wait. Time Passes. | Luke McQueen: Comedian’s Comedian + more

Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) until 24 August

Luke McQueen: Comedian’s Comedian ★★★★

Pleasance Dome (Venue 23) until 24 August

Joe Kent-Walters is Frankie Monroe: DEAD!!! (Good Fun Time) ★★★

CabVol 1 at Monkey Barrel (Venue 338) until 24 August

Stuart Laws is Stuck ★★★

Monkey Barrel at the Tron ( Venue 51a) until 24 August

Anyone who’s struggled with their art, who’s made personal sacrifices in pursuit of their creative calling or who has been beset by doubt about whether it’s all worth it (um, hello to every single human performing in Edinburgh this month) will relate to Joz Norris’s fascinating new show, You Wait. Time Passes.

Occupying the stage in soft white cotton and what might be slippers, and wearing a headband with “artist” written on it, he paces around the idea that he’ll be revealing his life’s work. There it is, safely hidden inside a box on a plinth waiting to be presented to us.

The journey towards its revelation zig-zags between excited anticipation and deliberate frustration. Waiting for Jozzo, if you will.

Norris leads us to believe that his marriage has disintegrated as a result of his dogged determination to realise his artistic ambition, until we’re drawn steadily into something approaching despair, with depictions of strained and frustrated conversations with his estranged wife and child.

But do we see the result of his life’s work? We certainly do. Gosh, do we. I’m certainly not going to spoil it for you.

It’s a universal belief that tragedy plus time equals comedy. But what respected and beloved clown collaborator Norris is doing in this bold and truthful piece – perhaps not a show for adherents to more accessible forms such as traditional stand-up – is positing that one day everything that is funny will one day be sad.

Luke McQueen has also created a rich show examining ideas around creative ambitions and unfulfilled professional expectations.

Named after a podcast called The Comedian’s Comedian, in which stand-up Stuart Goldsmith questions fellow comics in depth about their craft, its jumping off point is McQueen trying and failing to get the host to invite him on to be interviewed. There have been more than 500 episodes; surely it’s his turn. Surely.

Using a colourful blend of vanity and an Alan Partridge-flavoured carapace of self-assuredness, followed by visibly diminishing self-confidence, McQueen uses AI trickery to make it seem as if he’s having conversations with an exasperated Goldsmith.

(There’s every chance that he is actually talking to the real Goldsmith, and the guy is in on the joke, but one suspects not. Either way, we’re kept thoroughly engaged throughout.)

As McQueen starts to unravel, he treats us to video clips from his youthful attempts to get noticed on television, none of which reflect well on him.

Uncompromising comedy superstar Jordan Brookes’ fingerprints as director are all over this show, particularly in its more grotesque elements. Thanks to awful personalities in the worlds of tech and brewing, the word “disruptor” has earned unpleasant connotations of late, but McQueen is a disruptor in the best possible way.

McQueen is a captivating performer and clever writer, and there are some incredibly funny moments in this examination of an artist who believes he deserves more.

Is it self-indulgent? Of course it is. Would it be bewildering to some outside of comedy? Oh yes. But it sure is enjoyable for those who love the artform and its many challenges? Absolutely.

Somebody else who has a rip-roaring time playing with reality is Joe Kent-Walters. In this year’s show his wonderfully strange character, Frankie Monroe, comes back from the dead after being dispatched in the Gaulier graduate’s debut, which won the best newcomer prize at last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

Frankie is the sinister-looking owner of the Misty Moon, a Rotherham working man’s club which also happens to be the portal to Hell. With his hunched gate, growly voice and face painted white with Sudocrem, he finds a way back to Earth after learning that his mortal enemy, Vegas Dave, has bought his beloved club and is planning to gentrify it. The horror!

Time in Kent-Walters’ company is exhilarating. With sinister music and audience games, he immediately creates an unforgettable atmosphere that’s been accurately described as being between the League of Gentleman and Phoenix Nights, with the sort of absurd playfulness you’d have from Vic and Bob.

Who else is going to have you join in with a song about an egg in a bag, to orchestrate a game called “wine or brine” or to brandish a “gammon hammer”?

If the work doesn’t build too much upon what Kent-Walters achieved last year it doesn’t really matter, because everyone in the show will always remember being in the room where it happened. Hooray for that sort of originality.

When he’s not doing excellent stand-up, Stuart Laws can often be found doing daft-sounding shows such as Michael Caine Saying Never for One Hour, or organising the Comedians Beer Mat Flipping Championship. This year, in addition to those, he’s gone with another concept – a comedy play (albeit in the Fringe’s comedy section).

In Stuart Laws is Stuck, he plays a man who tries to get over a relationship breakup by becoming the caretaker on an island inhabited by puffins.

One of his jobs is to investigate the murder of one of the birds, and what follows is an at times confusing (thanks, in part, to technical wobbles on the day I’m in, though you can’t always tell with this mischievous fellow) series of time and location switches as we attempt to learn what really happened.

With the help of comedian Kate Hammer, playing puffins, Laws puts on a typically fun show that’s full of laughs, with something more emotionally serious at its heart.

Ashley Davies

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