Gig review by Steve Bennett at the Leicester Comedy Festival

There’s not too much to Eden Rivers’s loose and laid-back collection of parenting anecdotes, despite being pleasingly told.

As the father of two young girls, he’s got stories about getting the packed lunches together, being pestered over a trip to the zoo, and losing a wayward child in the supermarket, among others. ‘You want to hear about how I emotionally scarred and physically maimed my kids,’ he jokes, but the ensuing tales are pretty mild, reliably raising smiles, but fewer laughs.

There’s no narrative here; no lessons learnt or theme to bind it all together, despite the occasional passing mention of the reversal of traditional gender roles that has him as the homemaker. That’s just a fact, not an agenda.

Rivers has a well-meaning everyman empathy, at times redolent of John Thomson. He tells us he’s got experience as an actor, which explains why he appears so at home on the stage, but embarking on a full stand-up show (albeit one clocking it at around 35 minutes) leaves his limitations as a comic exposed.

Despite being a natural at holding the attention, the writing seems to mark him as a newer act ambitiously, perhaps over-ambitiously, stepping up to the solo offering. So it’s a surprise to subsequently learn from his online comedy CV that he’s been performing stand-up for seven years. You wouldn’t mark him out as a comedian, necessarily, more an affable chap with a few jolly anecdotes that still need to be gig-sharpened for maximum impact.

It’s interesting to note that the gag that zings most has little to do with the topic in hand, but involves him being reluctantly picked for an office football team – and protesting by playing as if a full-on Shakesperean luvvie. The big performance this anecdote demands clearly plays to his strengths. Oherwise Stay At Home Dad is a likeable show, but an insubstantial one.

Review date: 10 Feb 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett