Review by Marissa Burgess

Unsurprisingly, Obie’s chosen title for his show is an ironic one. Indeed it was the fact that he was doing the very opposite of ‘living the dream’ that gave the Glaswegian a reason to try stand up in the first place.

Called Obie simply because his surname is O’Brien, he’s an amiable chap whom it’s almost impossible to dislike. Added to that the fact that there aren’t many in his audience today he puts everyone at ease, chatting to each of us individually. Many acts at the Fringe dispense with the showmanship when faced with a small crowd, it’s a difficult one to judge but there’s always an element of disappointment when an act decides not to bother. It would be a nice professional touch if there had been a little run in music and if he hadn’t confessed to having not got around to doing any flyering yet.

He opens with a story of a one-night stand with a punch line that you can see coming. That said, the tale includes a lovely, absurd analogy of his lover being so large that others have scaled her heights and not returned.

Obie moves on to create a story from the playing cards he had handed out at the top of the show displaying his impressive ability to memorise numbers and random objects. Then towards the end of the show there’s a lightweight deconstruction of a series of nursery rhymes. Interspersed in between are new gags and sections that are prefixed by his disclaimer ‘this isn’t part of the show but…’ chatty anecdotes about previous shows and the like.

It all raises a smile but it’s a bit of a hotch-potch, veering from one half-arsed gag to another with more effective ones sprinkled in between. For Obie to fully command his hour he needs to put in more work and focus, but at least he already has the charisma upon which to work.

Review date: 14 Aug 2009
Reviewed by: Marissa Burgess