Review by Hilary Wardle

There’s a lot to like about bespectacled, Preston-based Dan Nightingale, not least because he’s an affable cross between Moby and Peter Kay who delivers solid, witty observational gags.

Dan’s early Bill Hicks reference and slight dig at Michael McIntyre’s ‘bumper sticker’ style humour suggests that he wants to be a bit more subtle than your typical broad appeal, easy-on-the-brain TV panel filler. However, despite the fact his show’s title is a reference to a classic Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, his slightly saggy-round-the-middle show seems to be geared more towards a Live At The Apollo crowd than to Hicks fans.

That’s not to say that Love In A Time Of Cholesterol isn’t funny. It is, very much so. It’s an exploration of some of the reasons why he’s still single- and broody- at 32, and although the structure and theme aren’t particularly strong, it successfully delves into universal fears: the fear of dying alone, the fear of commitment, the fear that - despite your best efforts to be cerebral- you’re attracting the kind of audience members who think it’s appropriate to bring a giant bag of crisps into a stand-up show. That sort of thing.


Dan deals with the crisp-eaters very effectively. ‘It’s not the cinema,’ he scolds, before placing the crisps at the back of the theatre so that they’ll have to look at them and think about what they did. It’s very entertaining, but they don’t seem particularly abashed.

As you might imagine in a show about post-30 dating, Match.com features highly. As the site pairs people up based on their interests, it’s also an opportunity for Dan to ask people about their favourite things (unsurprisingly, crisp-couple shout ‘crisps!’ and are rewarded with one each).

One of Dan’s favourite things is lesbians, but for personal rather than bantery, Nuts magazine reasons. He claims to have never met a lesbian he doesn’t like, then goes on to tell us an anecdote about how his pal Claire met her current girlfriend in a working men’s club in Bradford. She must really like a challenge. He also tells us all about his favourite food, and the way he reveals why he likes it is about as bumper-stickery as it gets. Never mind ‘man drawer’, ‘secret cheese!’ is definitely the new catchphrase-du-jour.

However, it’s his discussion of Match.com’s idiosyncrasies that gets the biggest laugh of the evening. The idea that someone would be desperate for love but not willing to travel further than walking distance to find it is genuinely amusing. Not to mention extremely lazy.

Dan might not be the next Bill Hicks, but he’s damn good fun. He’s a Greggs pasty of a comedian. Filling, reliable, tasty and damn good value. And full of secret cheese.

Review date: 6 Aug 2013
Reviewed by: Hilary Wardle