Review by Julia Chamberlain

This is an hour of unalloyed fun and messing about.  The blurb may boast of a ‘soulful and searingly honest’  experience – but that is rather lofty an ambition for a show that simply has a cracking laugh rate throughout.   

Jimmy McGhie warms the audience up with a bit of charm and flattery, responding positively to the little interruptions and remarks around the room,  orchestrating the different parts of the audience to come in with their little contributions, but leaving no doubt as to who is in charge.

The show  was  freewheeling – or rather constructed to seem that way – and definitely feel thats as if it will change  each night according to who is in the room.  He obviously has a few marks to hit in the hour, as there’s an abundance of material, but on this night there was plenty to draw from the crowd that wasn’t laboured or dull.  Each short interaction built on the last and never detracted from the main thrust of his stories.    

His energy is controlled and focused, moving around the stage easily but without being irritatingly twitchy or mannered, but  lots of striding, dipping and straddling, notably when doing voices – how odd. And he is perfectly adept at changing accents and getting them accurately. So although the show is relaxed, and McGhie seems to be having a great time playing, he has the skill is to disguise plenty of hard prep work that makes it seem effortlessly funny.  

This audience were eating out of his hand and would have stayed for another hour.   He makes no claims for a heartbreaking story, a crusade or life changing revelation, whatever the programme says. Instead this is a solid, bubbly and hilarious set to have you laughing hard.

Review date: 11 Aug 2013
Reviewed by: Julia Chamberlain