Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

It sometimes seems as if you can learn about more obscure health conditions at the Edinburgh Fringe than in med school. Today’s patient is Kyle Ayers and is presenting with trigeminal neuralgia, which cheerfully also goes by the name ‘suicide disease’. 

It causes a sharp shooting pain in the head, which the American comic likens to a live electrical cable lashing across his face, and is one of the most painful conditions in medicine, often resulting in depression. 

But Ayers is sanguine about the condition which struck him suddenly in 2017. He insists he doesn’t want this show to be sad, but does want to talk about what’s going on.

On that, mission accomplished. Hard To Say inevitably includes heavy-going stories about what he’s been through, including some pretty brutal treatments. In case things get too bleak, he hands a swannee whistle to a guy in the front row, inviting him provide a comedy sound effect should the tension needs breaking. It’s testament to how positively Ayers navigates this topic that we never hear the distinctive glissando.

Ayers finds the funny in his situation, from the unfortunate scar marks one operation left to the odd takes on his condition found on the internet to his rather disappointing bucket list. 

While the seriousness of his condition means the laughs are inevitably tempered, the story is compelling and adroitly told, culminating in a message about being patient with people as you don’t know what unseen issues they’re having to deal with. 

Even after an hour it’s hard to know exactly what pain Ayers feels, given his good-humoured approach to the condition, but his geniality ensures we want to hear more.

Review date: 13 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Just The Tonic at The Caves