Review by Steve Bennett

Luke McQueen brings to mind Johnny Vegas as his self-loathing best, but with that bitter energy focussed into smart, original and fiercely angry set pieces.

His performance – stripped near-naked, baked-bean-juice dribbled down his chest, and barking obscenities into the audience – is as electrifying as it is disconcerting. Nervous laughs at the unpredictability of a lunatic merge into heartier guffaws for his bold set pieces, raw potency and inspired ideas.

The experience is strange but hilarious, intimidating but controlled, as a lifetime of daddy issues and social inadequacy explode messily over the stage. In many ways, this is quintessential Fringe show: daring, original and innovative.

Oh, and immersive. The audience very much are a part of the show, beginning with the introductory singalong which he playfully subverts – just as he later demolishes the entire artifice of stand-up with one observational chunk about Groupon.

Elsewhere he cajoles, flirts with and berates the crowd. Don’t be surprised to find yourself on the receiving end of a tirade or a frustrated rebuke as he tries to displace his inadequacies on to others, with an unpredictable dynamic that will change from show to show. But ultimately his desperation for the love of either a good woman or of his father, or preferably both, means the joke is on him more than it is on any punter.

The idea is that at 29, this is his last chance to get validation that choosing a career on stage was not a waste. That intense pressure drives the comedy, but the inventive ways that he expresses that demonstrates beyond doubt that this is more than a man funnelling a mental breakdown, but a talented, original comic thinker, too.

The commercial prospects for a show like this, far from vanilla mainstream appeal, might not satisfy his dad; but it places him in the vanguard of the new alternative comedians doing intrepid and interesting things with the artform.

Review date: 5 Aug 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard