Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Edinburgh is lucky to have Aaron Chen, who is verging on the big league. Alongside upcoming appearances on Taskmaster Australia and Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee, Chen has found a new audience of housewives via the legal comedy series Fisk. In Sydney he plays 3,000-seat rooms and has recently relocated to make inroads in New York, on a visa which classifies him as ‘an alien of extraordinary ability’ – a better summation of the man than could be achieved by a hundred reviews.

It  all feels a little unlikely given his persona. With the posture and gait of an old man and the fashion sense of an alternative rapper, he is  so relaxed and minimalist in his presentation that he sometimes seems like he’s talking in his sleep. 

He’s somehow been able to harness a disconnect between the indie connotations of his appearance and delivery, and material so accessible that it would sound appropriate voiced by Michael McIntyre. Worst of both worlds, you might think, but in Chen’s hands, it works brilliantly.

He is, for example, one of the only acts at the Pleasance to do a bit of local material up top, referencing shortbread and Edinburgh Airport, which he says is his main source of current affairs coverage after he accidentally signed up to their newsletter. Chen moves smoothly from there into a sizeable (and very funny) routine about airplane food, which is not even the first time he’s covered this topic. It’s as if he takes on these routines as a challenge. Can he make it work? You bet he can.

After a later routine about decorative pillows and arguments with the wife, I was questioning how exactly he makes this material feel so fresh and maintains his aura of indie mystique, but part of Chen’s appeal is in not having to worry about categorisation like that. Touchingly, he describes being a comedian as ‘living your life in wonderment, tending the plants and pruning your funny garden.’ 

That care and naturalness is what makes him great.

Review date: 19 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard