Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

This is an extraordinary show: erudite, daft, punning, rammed with gags, rich in characters, autobiographical and visually lively. You couldn’t possibly ask for more.

As pale as wax and with enviable auburn locks, Alasdair Beckett-King cuts a distinctive figure – and neither is his show a generic bloke-and-his-ego hour.

Many of his stories reference the coast of the North East  of England, where he’s from, and there’s a subtle sea theme. The show opens with him on an oversize stripy deckchair, the graphic in the title has a lifebelt for the ‘o’, there are piers, groynes, his mum’s nautical-styled bathroom, and passing as a mermaid. But it’s not a show of sea stories, it’s just the unifying, background colour.

The gags come thick and fast, with a choice of beginnings, then multiple tags for some of the jokes. There are musical gags, sight gags, musical and visual gags combined, animation, VT inserts and Grade A storytelling. This wasn’t written on the train on the way up, you can see the hard work and polish.

To call this multi-faceted doesn’t tell the half of it. It’s an absolute treasure trove of ideas and images, disparate parts that are pulled together by the end without feeling contrived. There’s an enormous amount going on here, not in a frenetic way but kaleidoscopic changes and shifts in style and content all contribute, no comic stone is left unturned.

On this night there were a couple of near misses with the tech, which only added to the audience’s glee at being there; like when a magician appears to have a trick go wrong, but then exceeds expectation. Saving the day made it even better than if it had gone like clockwork.

Massively entertaining, this is the show I’d want to drag my friends to because they won’t see anything else like it.

• Alasdair Beckett-King: Nevermore  is on at Pleasance Dome at 7pm

Review date: 11 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Julia Chamberlain
Reviewed at: Pleasance Dome