Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Ian Stone is not a comedian of great whistles and bells: just a common-sense man approaching 60, giving it straight about the world as he sees it, on both a micro and macro scale.

Indeed, the one gimmick he does employ in Righter Of Wrongs – getting the audience to assign scores to all the variables used to calculate nations’ rankings on the world happiness scale – seems like fruitless time-filling. Although the crowd dialogue does establish a fluidity to the gig, and the education section throws up a cracking anecdote from his schooldays.

Stone’s been in the business so long he makes it look easy. He’s relaxed and conversational, instinctively hitting the cadence needed to get the most out of every punchline, and the hour whizzes past.

He has an effortless ‘telling it like it is’ vibe without being too trenchant – well, except maybe when talking about the Tory leadership, which does raise his hackles. Otherwise, being not sure about anything is part of his fibre, collating second-hand opinions he’s half-heard elsewhere to form his views.

Those who are so certain of themselves are not entirely to be trusted – they may have got their views from going down disinformation rabbit holes during the pandemic. And anyone who claims that any minor request made for the sake of public health means the UK is ‘just like Nazi Germany’ gets very short shrift from this Jewish comic.

Loosely, the show is about Stone trying to be happy, even though that’s not a particularly British trait, and he doesn’t feel too comfortable about it. Especially when there’s so much to annoy him, from corporations needily wanting approval via constant requests for feedback to traffic jams; from armchair football managers to those who abuse him for how he looks.

Grumbling about young people comes across as more fogeyish, especially when he complains about their language full of ‘innits’ and ‘do ya get mes?’ But it appeals to the demographic he attracts in this 4pm slot – which he insists we all pretend is 9pm.

And a section about developing pictures in the pre-digital days is slightly hacky – normally used in connection with how dick pics must have been back in the day – but it’s done with the efficiency of writing and delivery that hallmarks Stone’s work.

A straight talker and effortless performer, Stone might not have the bombshell material to make your world shift on its axis, but Righter Of Wrongs is an amusing and entertaining hour from a very accomplished circuit hand.

• Ian Stone: Righter of Wrongs is on at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House at 4pm

Review date: 11 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Laughing Horse @ The Counting House