Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

For a guy who’s has always touted his lack of stage presence and charisma, Eric Rushton is quickly becoming a remarkably assured performer. After a rough ride last year, he’s been given a room and an audience at the Monkey Barrel that fits the intimate, low-key nature of his work, and it’s paying off nicely.

Rushton has always been a great composer of jokes, but they were the kind of jokes that could fit in anyone’s mouth. Any youngish man, anyway, who was at least willing to pretend to be low status. 

In the past, he’s sometimes attempted to mitigate that trait by leaning into the personal or the emotional, with slightly mixed results. Real One though, while notionally autobiographical, is resolutely insouciant, recounting a long shaggy dog story about his day job at his old secondary school, and the jar of decaf which goes missing from the staffroom cupboard. 

The school setting works well for him, allowing him opportunities for bleak koans about the hopelessness of adulthood – one of his favourite modes. ‘Why am I the enemy?’ he asks his students, ‘I care as little about your education as you do.’

It’s a casual story that suits his casual style: a good vehicle for the beautifully constructed jokes that are his real forte. Every generation needs joke writers like him – it’s one of the rarest and most precious disciplines to be able to work creatively within the one-liner format while still threading them into a coherent narrative. 

Among the many pearls  that will have him getting Dave’s joke list hot and bothered, my favourite: ‘If your name is José you’re going to face a lot of rejection in your life.’

It’s a pleasure to see him on such confident, breezy form.

Review date: 14 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Hive)