Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Philipp Kostelecky commanded a hot, full room at the Stand this afternoon.  He didn’t think he did, but he did.

It was unusual to start a set with a bunch of wanking hand signals – gosh, Philipp,  we hardly know you –  but he drove it home and was happy to keep a good percentage of the set firmly below the waist.  There was more to the show than sexual scenarios, however, as he took quite the philosophical turn to talk about needing trauma or emotional damage to make you interesting.

He is a physical comedian, eye-rolling, pouting, gurning and exaggerating, holding a look for too long and whipping out the pistol fingers for emphasising a corny line. It was as though he is compelled to undercut his own intelligence and ludicrous good looks by being manic.

He clearly loves an act-out and in this room it all felt in extreme close-up, but he had the skills vocally and visually to hold the audience.  The performance was all and he sold us his all-American/Lithuanian/Austrian boy-with-no hang-ups  personality good and hard. He has presence to spare and a mature comic persona that felt as though he has closely observed comedians since the year dot. He has learned the behaviours down pat.

So far, so good.  He questioned too much if we were going for the material, even though there were plenty of laughs right from the start. The fact is, we’d have been even more prepared to let rip with the laughs if there were more actual gags in the show.

He sets up lots of anecdotes and stories, but there’s not one takeaway line in the whole thing, even though at one point he claimed this as quite a ‘clubby’ set. In my book, 'clubby' means writing actual gags, a much under-rated skill in this era of personality display.

This was a polished Edinburgh debut from a skilled performer, and Kostolecky will attract a positive attention for this. It’s what he does behind the scenes in his writing that will make his next show the one to watch out for. Or comedy will lose him to acting, because he’d be equally at home there.

Review date: 21 Aug 2023
Reviewed by: Julia Chamberlain
Reviewed at: Stand 2