Edinburgh Fringe review by Alex Bruce

Another day, another comedian exhuming the same exhausted comic corpses. 

It’s not Rory O Hanlon’s fault that 90 per cent of comedians discuss one or two of the topics he wants to cover. However, every single thing he brought up has already been overdone, and he adds little new.

He starts with his - and the front row’s - nationalities, and eventually touches down on Trump and Boris, via alcohol, vaping, kids today, being Irish, British racists enjoying Spanish holidays/Indian food, gluten-free diets, London life and the famed magical, mythical middle aisle of Lidl (or Aldi, or whatever).

The observations themselves are OK, but so one-dimensional, so common and so generic that the typical audience member will have not only heard them before, but most likely multiple times, even from non-comedians, family and friends. 

O Hanlon has a tired if accessible man-in-the-pub style, not just in tone but in material too. For someone sober since 2006, he refers to alcohol in almost every gag.

This is essentially a show without a theme, too, as the title bears no relevance. It is mentioned, but far less than any of the subjects on the exhaustive list above.

O’Hanlon clearly has a good, confident patter and manner, and his crowd work is good – at least compared with his non-crowd-work. 

But this show severely lacks material of much interest on which to use his delivery skills.

Review date: 18 Aug 2019
Reviewed by: Alex Bruce
Reviewed at: Opium