Review by Steve Bennett

At the end of his allotted hour, Stuart Laws hands out a copy of his set list, designed to look like a map of a theme park, one of the topics he covered. To strain the analogy, his show contains some thrilling roller-coaster rides – but sometimes we get stuck going round in circles in the teacups.

He certainly seeks to be different. For too long have lebkuchen – the baked gingerbread-style German Christmas cookies – escaped serious analysis on the stand-up stage; yet here Laws dedicates a substantial section to them and their cunning ways. And the plot of 1997 volcano disaster movie Dante’s Peak gets a through working-over too.

His intense obsession with these trivialities is the main part of the joke, but he’s only semi-successful in getting the audience on board, though the minutia is interesting and his conviction total. And when he does a similar trick on a more consistently funny routine about catching spiders, the repetition of quirky phrases act like a chorus you enjoy hearing time and again.

Speaking of repetition, he nails it with a brisk opening section asking for a quick show of hands on various issues that energises the room. When’s This Gonna Stop? (1hr Show) is not just a neat title, but a question some of the less patient might be asking themselves halfway though some of his routines.

Yet it’s all dependably funny, except perhaps the ill-judged, sentimentalised 9/11 memorial videos he found online, which is just pointing out the crass, even indulging it.

Laws has constructed a fluid set that flows all these topics together and even ties them up unexpectedly. ‘It’s not enough to be intricately written,’ he says in a moment of self-aware lucidity, but it certainly helps. And he’s a personable presence, too, letting his enthusiasm for the material shine, and engaging in playful to-and-fro with the audience. The segment where he busts a myth about helium is priceless and will have you reaching for Google later.

It’s a confident performance of confident material, though just a tad more awareness of when some in-depth nonsense needs to be trimmed back would sharpen thing considerably.

Review date: 12 Aug 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: PBH's Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth