Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

David Cameron is an inspiration. Not a sentence you’d expect at the Fringe, but the former PM’s long-forgotten and not-at-all gimmicky idea of compiling a sort of GDP for national happiness has given Jonny And The Baptists this show’s title.

And it’s the musical comedy duo’s socialist duty to point out that few people have done more for national unhappiness over the past 14 years than the Conservatives, as their rundown of the last five Prime Ministers attests.

While that’s broadly satirical, they are more personal when discussing the state of the NHS, especially mental health services. It’s a great contradiction that while the duo are one of the most cheerful, joyful, positive comedy acts around, they both suffer from mental health problems. Jonny Donahoe has ADHD, Paddy Gervers, severe, grief-induced clinical depression  (and a physical injury that’s currently keeping him from playing his guitar, but that’s a separate issue…)

This is introduced by the inappropriately jaunty call that ‘it’s never too late to give up!’ If that sounds a bit bleak, wait till you hear about the NHS’s terrifying bureaucracy and bargain-basement treatment.

Miserable message, but it’s juxtaposed with broad smiles and toe-tapping music that makes you feel the world could be a better place if we collectively chose to be more Jonny or more Paddy. Their friendship is also the best medicine for their troubles.

The fact that people no longer trust real health has led to the rise of woo-woo treatments as sold by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, which J&TB parody with their own range of wellness solutions.

More levity comes from a side story that they secured Arts Council funding for this show – but told them it was The Tempest, so they’ve got to do that now as well.

Chuck in fart jokes, celebrations of the mundane, a surreal number about a monkey wedding and countless short, sharp musical stings that are essentially one-lines with a tune you know, and you have a varied selection pack of bite-sized entertainments that keep you laughing while Donahoe and Gervers’s true message percolates through.

If anyone was serious about raising the nation’s Happiness Index, Jonny And The Baptists would be available on prescription.

Review date: 6 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Assembly George Square