Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Rich Hardsity gives his show a lot of disclaimers, reassuring the audience it’s OK to laugh at the dark stories he tells, since turning the lowest points of his life into laughter is what shows he has power over them.
Mania, depression, self-harm, anorexia, heroin abuse and a stint in a mental health institution are just some of the colours in his palette of pain. But we are told that if ever we feel his story is getting too grim, it will get better.

Actually, Hardsity’s breezy spirit and casual acceptance of all he’s been through make this far from the misery hour it could have been. He’s not one for delving deep into those grim episodes, for putting the audience through an emotional wringer to give the punchlines a powerful lift of relief compared to the apparent despair of his situations.

No. Instead, inspired by Richard Pryor’s flippant discussion of his drug problems, Hardsity makes light of it all, describing himself as ‘clinically bonkers’ as well as the titular ‘silly boy’. He’ll talk about the time he decided to walk the 80 miles from London to Margate during one mental health episode or trying to score smack from a homeless man in the same offhand manner that another comic might talk about grappling with a self-service checkout.

If if feels like he’s missed a trick in not milking the drama of what’s going through his head, he addresses that with a full-on multimedia blast at the end. This attempts to convey what it feels like to experience the sort of manic episode that fuels his Messiah complex. And besides, his chatty, unaffected discussion of the issues he faced does a lot to destigmatise them.
Indeed, the show verges on a veritable celebration of his peculiar brain, with each malfunction offering a new adventure – and even he doesn’t know how it ends. Emotionally unstable personality disorder is scriptwriter.

Certainly Hardsity has plenty of disarmingly honest stories no one else could possibly have, and guides us through them with good cheer, with the wildly unpredictable nature of his life the punchline to every anecdote. It’s an entertaining insight into the consequences of some severe mental issues, more fun than it sounds.

• Rich Hardisty: Silly Boy is on at the Pleasance Courtyard at 4.30pm

Review date: 9 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard