Edinburgh Fringe comedy reviews: Tom Lawrinson | Dan Rath | Dee Allum

Underbelly Cowgate,(Venue 61), until 25 August

★★★★

Television commissioners scouting for shows to turn into award-winning comedy dramas need to drop everything to see Tom Lawrinson’s latest outing, a thrilling glimpse into a wonky childhood.

When he was seven, his parents moved the family of six to Spain so they could open a bar. He went from being one of those “topless boys” (on account of only having one shirt – they were very cheap, you see) to “one of those little boys you see in bars”. His encountered a lot of drunk people and his siblings encouraged him to sing Fat Les’s Vindaloo on the karaoke; if you look up the opening lines of that football song, you’ll see why it might have come across as absurdly sinister.

 As their one-bedroom home was too small to accommodate everyone, Lawrinson’s dad dug a hole to create a mini basement to house the kids. Meanwhile, the seven-year-old had to navigate a new school, where he didn’t speak (or indeed learn) the language or have any friends, but he did have a horrible bully.

As anyone who’s seen his successful online sketches – both solo and with Sam O’Leary – will know, he’s a master at off-kilter observations, and it’s a joy to see how well he works on stage. You probably wouldn’t want to bring your own parents though, especially when he talks about some of the things you can now buy at Tesco.

The pace and quality of jokes is fast and high, and the nuggets about his family, from his father’s bouts of anger to his sisters’ boyfriends, are as original and funny as they are insightful. You’re left desperate to know more about the Lawrinsons and little Tom’s inner world.

And a throwaway joke about the audience assisting him on a journey of vengeance is typical of his exhilarating style of comedy: Tom Lawrinson has turned playful menace into an art form.

Ashley Davies

Dan Rath: Pariah Carey

Underbelly Bristo Square (venue 302), until 26 August

★★★★

You might think a sparse audience, scattered unevenly around a large conference room, would be off-putting for the person on stage.  But Dan Rath seems to thrive on it.

In fact, you get the feeling that for Rath everyday life is a series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles - so having to entertain a weird constellation of people is the least of his problems.

Autistic, bipolar, suffering from Long Covid and possibly Lyme disease, Rath has a list of pathologies as long as his arm.  He’s not mawkish or sentimental about any of it - but uses it as a kind of psychological theme park through which he takes his audience on a trip.

You might think this would be uncomfortable for the audience - but Dan Rath has such an armoury of absolute comic zingers that people positively howl with laughter.  Not all at the same time, and not all at the same jokes - but that doesn’t seem to matter either.

In a festival groaning with neurodiversity, Rath takes the gold medal.  I seem to remember he also had Tourettes last year but that seems to have calmed down a bit - maybe it’s the Lithium.

It’s a lot to take in.  But even if the jokes sail by you when you’re in the room, Rath’s hilariously wonky comic imagination will hijack you a few hours later and you’ll find yourself laughing loudly to yourself on the bus.  Last year the memory of his absurdist life hacks kept swimming into my mind for days afterwards.

There’s a fantastic bit where he talks about sending a tweet to Donald Trump and Donald Trump sending a tweet back.  What’s going on?  Why is the president of the United States talking to him?  It’s ridiculous - but utterly believable. We are all living in a peculiar world.

Claire Smith

Dee Allum: Deadname

Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33), until 25 August

★★★

Considering how much of her life is spent coming out and explaining herself to others, it's hardly surprising that Dee Allum's debut has a superb initial flurry of introductory gags. The trans comic is witheringly sardonic about anyone who struggles to interpret her combination of baritone and make-up, from those who can't comprehend the interplay of gender and sexuality, to others whose minds are sufficiently disturbed into categorising her alongside their own bizarre kinks.

Meanwhile, Allum's backstory, of having been taught in an all boys school, by future comedian and GB News presenter Andrew Doyle no less, is rich in irony. Misconceptions are overturned, with the Watford FC supporting comic's attitude towards, and defensiveness regarding, limited to a tiny minority of the football fraternity.

Gradually, however, her tone takes on a more tender and even educational quality. For her mother and girlfriend accompanying her in her transition, for the family planning she's arranging now for later, and most strikingly for Danny, the person and rookie comic she used to be.

The story of Allum freezing her sperm is a detailed and very funny variation on many male stand-up's similar routines. Equally though, her account of the romantic gesture she made for a previous girlfriend feels like tangential filler.

Jay Richardson

Shenoah Allen: Bloodlust Summertime

Just the Tonic at The Caves (Venue 88), until 25 August

★★★

Shenoah Allen quotes Breaking Bad as a reference for his adolescence growing up in isolated Albuquerque, New Mexico. And stone me, if the hit TV series isn't practically eclipsed by the tales of guns, drugs and family tension the ex-Pajama Men star relates in this often jaw-dropping stand-up debut.

When he tells you he was arrested at 13, simply for wandering out of his school and into that of his older brother's, you chuckle at the needless overreaction and no doubt gentle comic consequences to come, utterly oblivious to the drama and trauma racing down the road.

Hicksville USA and ‘wrong side of the tracks’ don't begin to cover the scope of it, with Allen wryly launching his hour with the notion of a single, specific unnamed dread he must uncover in order to find peace. That his family is a little different is attested to by his NASA, military hard-arse grandfather and his gay prostitute father, though the most affecting character is a Lenny-like, gentle giant uncle, whom Allen recalls in affecting tribute.

Retaining the wonderfully expressive physicality he displayed in his sketch double act, stand-up is a new venture for the London-based American. And he's almost got too much story and not enough time to break it down properly, but there are promising signs of a fresh bullet in his comedic chamber.

Jay Richardson

Phil Ellis : Come on and Take The Rest Of Me

Monkey Barrel Comedy (Venue 515), until 25 August

★★★★

Phil Ellis puts more fun into his funny than any other comic. Fact. More than any other comment I hear as his venue empties is “that was so much fun”. And it is. Just standing there, Phil is funny. But he never just stands there.

He has, surprisingly, taken a turn for the sartorial this year, although given the quality of the suit he wears the venue could be picketed by Just Stop Oil.

With unexpected sound effects by Tom Short, Phil shares his newfound confidence that he is doing everything right. So irresistible are his arguments, that this might be the show to persuade you that you just have too many pans.

Of course, there has been trauma in Phil's life lately – London patisserie prices will shock anyone – but he relaxes by looking at roadkill, and, occasionally, contributing to it himself. No one in the room can bring themselves to hate him. We are having too much fun. And we all have our hobbies.

There is such cleverness in his way of bumbling along what would be the edge for any other comic so that anything is forgiven. But no one else could get away with his 9/11 section and still be the nice guy, and when he plunges into the dark with a story about his murdered aunt it is painfully, hilariously appalling. His unexpectable visual gag about pre-internet personal pronouns is comedy perfection.

He hates David Attenborough, loves his 'good boys', appreciates a good sock and once stuck his hand in a bus driver's hole. What more do you want ? FYI If you are a fan of The Real Thing and their toe-tapping hit You To Me Are Everything, Phil's Big Finish will be painful.

Kate Copstick