Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

The elevator pitch for Dave Bibby’s Baby Dinosaur is pretty simple. He was going to stage a one-man version of Jurassic Park, but a new baby – and a natural tendency to procrastinate – means he never got the chance to finish it.

Thus it becomes a 30-person project, or however many audience members there are in the room, as we are all roped in to recreate Steve Spielberg’s multi-million-pound blockbuster on a Free Fringe budget.

The show we’re missing seems like it would have been pretty good, given the spirited one-scene sample Bibby offers at the top of the hour, full of daft accents and hammy performance. He can even do the water juddering from the energy of the approaching T-Rex. But the show we do get is undeniably great fun as long as you’re willing to play along with a little – non-scary - audience participation.

We provide sound effects – either en masse or individually – and occasionally someone will be called upon to be one of the characters. But Bibby’s encouraging and enthusiastic, not out to embarrass anybody for taking part in his big game.

He takes a few liberties with the original plot: Elon Musk is now the evil billionaire, the attraction is now not Isla Nublar but an abandoned Mr Blobby theme park, and there are a lot more geese than Michael Crichton ever wrote. It’s all utterly ludicrous even before the addition of some dad jokes and the Blur song reimagined as Jurassic Parklife.

Between these shenanigans, Bibby does a bit of stand-up about new babies, but it’s unremarkable. His talent is instead being something of a Butlin’s redcoat, jollying us all along in mass participation. And that’s meant as a compliment – he’s great at getting us to buy into his nonsense and abandon any reticence to instead revel in the spirit of play sure to bring a smile to your face.

Review date: 11 Aug 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: PBH's Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth