Review by Steve Bennett

The more cynical among us can so easily poke fun at what Danny Bhoy does.  You can quite easily accuse him of being repetitive and bland, never pushing himself to produce something truly great.

But, then, the strength of this particular hour illustrates just how easy it is to get caught up in the storm of observations and situations he creates, showing just how good he really is.

This year, Bhoy turns his comically observation eye towards the Scottish national identity.  He has recently discovered that the Scottish diet has been ranked the worst in the world, and uses this find as a springboard to investigate what it means to be Scottish in contemporary society. 

Therefore, we are presented with a series of routines about thistles, bagpipes and binge drinking, all wrapped up in Bhoy’s inimitable relaxed style of delivery.

The real power of Bhoy’s show is in the strength of his reconstructions of events.  More often than not – and he acknowledges this more than once by saying ‘you know what’s coming now, don’t you?’ – it is possible to map out an entire routine from the initial set-up. 

However, when he performs the predictable result, it is still difficult not to crack a smile.  Even those most hardened against his work would be hard pressed not to laugh when he is pretending to be a corn-fed chicken, or even the reference to that routine later in the show.

The sheer number of such callbacks,  especially in the show’s last closing moments,  display how well thought-out and constructed the show is, perhaps to the point of being contrived.  They are devastatingly effective though, even if their presence in such large numbers does somewhat destroy the illusion of stand-up’s spontaneity. 

But Bhoy is so harmless, fun and efficient that the Edinburgh Fringe would not be complete without him.

Review date: 1 Jan 2005
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett