Review by Alex Mason

On the cutting edge of topicality, Eddie Naessens opens with a MacGyver gag, before going on to joke about the Catholic Church, Jesus, the Catholic Church, the smoking ban, the Catholic Church, and sex.

This is hack material at its worst, which is a real shame as Naessens is an experienced stand-up. The jokes are delivered almost monotone, and the majority of them failed to produce a smile. It became painful to watch, with audience members checking watches and finding ways to amuse themselves through a dull hour.

Though an unfortunately bad set, it wasn't universally poor. There was poignant material on Naessen's face paralysis and his 2005 show, but it gave a feeling of ‘here's what you could have won’ – telling you of comedy he once performed but won't be doing for you.

There was hope at several points, with lots of interesting premises but each ultimately becoming nothing but a generic punchline. Naessens is a tame performer, which in itself is fine, but he thinks he's close to the line and holding back in case he says something too offensive; thus depriving the audience of potential laughs.

One genuinely good bit of comedy was a musical piece explaining how a good musician can make anything sound good, illustrated via a Bob Dylan impression singing the words on the back of a cereal box. However, this was a drop in the ocean of bad gags and acted more as a reprieve than a saving grace.

The entire set felt thrown together, with a random assortment of dated jokes varying from Celine Dion to the number of blades on a razor, with no rhyme or reason. You could almost mistake it for a reading of a 'best of' collection of pub jokes, all of which you've heard somewhere before.

Review date: 23 Aug 2012
Reviewed by: Alex Mason
Reviewed at: Ciao Roma