Brighton Fringe comedy review by Steve Bennett

Robin Morgan is stuck in a very crowded genre: Another mid-30s, middle-class, low-status, slightly camp, slightly geeky beta male recounting tales entirely about his own experiences. 

Luckily, though, he’s pretty darned good at storytelling, with a soft charm that builds affinity and has us rooting for him all the way through an entertaining true story, told without apparent embellishment, and certainly without over-egging the delivery.

And despite his unshowy style, he’s assured enough to roll with the distractions of a Friday night, free-to-enter gig.

Morgan’s Free Man – a pun on Morgan Freeman pun that he concedes no one gets – is an entertaining debut hour built around the day he proposed to his girlfriend on a New York trip in December 2014, and the build-up to it.

That build-up starts as far back as his girlfriend-free teen years, when he admits - surprise, surprise – that he wasn't one of the cool kids. In an ironically delivered humblebrag, of the sort you can imagine many of his comedic ilk saying, he reveals proudly: "I was in a band, guys.’

Of course, Black Despondency was awful, with lyrics full of overblown teenage angst imaging a ‘damaged’ life, despite being a cosseted middle-class boy from a stable family. Think Rik from The Young Ones, but set to death metal, and you have the nub of this amusing slice of retrospective self-deprecation.

A few romantic misfires later and Morgan finds himself in a serious relationship, struggling in tiny London accommodation having moved from his native Wales, scrubbing together enough money for the ring, part of the perfect scenario for the big moment.

Needless to say, things don’t go as planned, but in a credible ‘that could happen to anyone; way, typical of Morgan’s everyman appeal. But while the story –soon to be made into a half-hour Radio Wales show – is relatively modest, its telling comes with a warm amiability and a richly satisfying conclusion that shows the beauty of a well-concealed callback. 

This is not a wall-to-wall rolling-in-the-aisles hilarious sort of a show, although there are a fair few sly gags thrown in, as you might expect from a comic who’s just landed a bursary to work with the BBC’s radio comedy department. But it no less rewarding for being a charming tale, charmingly told.

Review date: 22 May 2017
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett