Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

When social media figures move into the stand-up space, they have a dynamic you don’t find in most shows

Even before the act walks on stage, there’s an established connection between performer and audience that feels intimate and that few conventional comedians could hope to match. The room is full of supportive love and a feeling that it’s all friends together more than a show with all its trappings.

But it also means an outsider nor fully up to speed,  such as – oh, I don’t know, let’s say a reviewer for a comedy website  – can feel excluded from all the familiarity and in-jokes that the performer doesn’t need to contextualise.

That’s certainly the case with Paul Black’s Edinburgh debut, a moderately amusing mix of well-delivered stand-up and sketches, received with glee by the fans at Multistory. Even he concedes that the reactions are overegged, telling the crowd at one point: ‘Thank you for clapping at fucking everything.’

Not many comics would open their show by thanking the brewery company that sponsors them and the designers of the merchandise, available in the bar later, by the way. No ‘spirit of the Fringe’ award here, but merch is what this crowd want, flocking to post-show the meet-and-greet. 

The 24-year-old speaks of how his TikToks have given him a very localised level of fame in his native Glasgow, though it’s clearly spread down the M8. Still, he still toils at a day job as a runner on TV and film productions, which informs some of his stand-up, from describing encounters with stars (names are not named) or how a boss’s veneer of being a right-on maverick made her no less ruthless than any other corporate shark.

Black’s material ranges from the personal to the generic, from talking about the intrusive thoughts and catastrophising which gives the show its title to the old staple of how doctors’ receptionists are rude. 

The best segments are probably in between, and usually revolve around class. His vivid description of a born-again Christian church whose congregation is a mix of the well-meaning middle class and the rough schemies they see as a project is a delight, especially when the story turns to one of the ministers being put on ‘trial’ for adultery.

His popular hipster alter ego, the musician Gh0stbøy, feeds into this, and in one sketch here they move into the neglected Drumchapel area of Glasgow, amusingly mispronounced, in search of authenticity. Pulp might have expressed the class-tourism idea more succinctly, but Black’s brother Mark, a regular collaborator, cuts a fine figure as a fag-smoking mum in her dressing gown, sharing the secrets of ‘her people’, another character familiar to fans.

Another crowd favourite, a loud and ill-informed American tourist, also makes an appearance making a nuisance of himself on the Royal Mile. It’s not the most original archetype, but well-realised, even if the sketch goes on too long with too few developments – a common complaint over this hour.

Worst Case Scenario probably doesn’t do quite enough to propel Black out of his bubble of local and internet fame – though it’s expanding so quickly he may not need to. But while the writing needs punching up, the hour nonetheless underlines his attributes as a skilled sketch performer and a likeable presence when being himself, even if you’re not already his virtual friend.

• Paul Black: Worst Case Scenario will be at  Glasgow’s Oran Mor on October 1 and 3, but the three performances sold out within minutes last week.

Review date: 22 Aug 2021
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: MultiStory