Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Rosco McClelland describes himself as a relatively calm and collected person – although you wouldn’t know it from his whirlwind delivery.

The Glaswegian comic has good reason to be chill IRL, as he has Long QT Syndrome, which causes an irregular heartbeat that has led him to pass out randomly. But the consequences could be worse: the condition’s other name is ‘sudden death syndrome’.

This bombshell comes quite late in the stand-up’s show, as if he barely thought it worth mentioning before. Indeed, it’s taken him five Fringe shows to bring it up, which is typical of his remarkably blasé approach to the ever-present risk, reckless even.

However, holding off until he was a more established comedian may have been wise. The condition doesn’t define his work and the material happily sits amid other wild and uproarious stand-up, rather than adding to the glut of semi-dramatic ‘my health struggle’ shows across the Fringe. 

The 35-year-old has some amusing stories about his treatment, such as the medic who gave him bad news in a weirdly unreassuring way, but funnier yet are the stories of his bam mate Shanksy, an agent of chaos who threatened to derail the recording of McClelland’s first special.

It seems like a very Glaswegian story, part of a thread in which he portrays  Scotland as ‘a miserable place full of good people’ – religious bigotry notwithstanding.

He has a great version of the meme format of revealing your real weaknesses when asked that question in a job interview, and confesses to being an idiot, but on a quest to ‘destupify’ himself. But hopefully he won’t go too far, the best gag of the hour, based on ‘nepo baby’ is 100 per cent dumb and all the better for it.

A literal shaggy dog story about his pet is the only moment the breakneck pace eases, and if the chuckles dry up during the telling, the audience explodes in laughter on the punchline.

Quite right too. For this is a rollicking hour of unflashy, but highly effective, stand-up from a natural comic who always holds the room in the palm of his hand. 

Review date: 12 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Hive)