Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Just wow. This is Vittorio Angelone’s debut hour and it is a cracker. A very loose structure based around Brian Friel’s play Translations allows Angelone to peg the characters in his life with some of the people from Friel’s 1980 classic drama.  

However, it doesn’t matter a jot if it that is unfamiliar to the audience, it has already signalled Angelone’s smarts. It’s nice to have this as a reference rather than the ubiquitous Love Island remarks other comedians might use.

Although relatively new, with the pandemic driving a horse and cart through his burgeoning comedy career, he is already the full package, a compelling live performer with excellent writing, lacing the show with unflashy callbacks, which are obviously contrived, but he is clever enough to make it appear otherwise.  

Right from the off, he is pitching himself as Edinburgh savvy – the debut hour, coming for accolades, what award-winning shows look like (‘sad’) and how they’re structured, the cost of performing here… This is seamlessly blended with family history – for once stuff about the performer’s name is relevant and entertaining, introducing the cast of his extended family with lightning-fast verbal sketches. 

He’s got the poise and raconteur’s skill of Dave Allen, if you’ll forgive the stereotyping cliché for Irish comedians, but is very much his own man. And his spiky detestation of the English is both funny and uncomfortably on the money. 

Angelone is polished, and deservedly confident, and his densely plotted stand-up is refreshing in an era of narrative, mental health-driven or prop comedy. He demonstrates the power of stripping the craft right back to writing condensed gags and speaking them with dash and spark.

 If he was pitching himself for a newcomer award, Derren Brown style – say it enough times and the idea will stick – he should be a strong contender. His show was packed at 2pm in a small room, next year we’ll be scrabbling for tickets in a larger venue.

• Vittorio Angelone: Translations is on at Monkey Barrel Carnivore at 2.05pm.

Review date: 20 Aug 2022
Reviewed by: Julia Chamberlain
Reviewed at: PBH's Free Fringe @ Carnivore Edinburgh