Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

For all the times I’ve heard Mat Ewins complain about his show going wrong, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen it fail in the room. And while it’s great to see young comedians adopt his multimedia methods, Fearghas Kelly’s show at the Stand demonstrates that it’s harder than Ewins makes it look – and Ewins doesn’t exactly make it look easy.

A young Glaswegian, Kelly works in a combination of videos, PowerPoints and handmade animations and has a good line in inserting himself into popular movies. When a joke doesn’t go his way, he can often win the room back by showing a video of John Travolta blowing his head off in Pulp Fiction.

That one comes out a couple of times during this 45-minute set, as Kelly’s jokes are liable to land awkwardly. One early whiff involves a Photoshop of himself in the Iraq war dressed in an Elizabethan ruff. A funny picture, but not one that makes a whole lot of sense as the punchline to the joke he’s telling. Similarly, he draws an unclear connection between Freddos and the European Union, capping it off by superimposing the European flag onto a Freddo. There’s just none of the punchiness that you need to make this sort of multimedia work.

Some of the longer sections work better, like a gag in which he inserts himself into the famous ‘I’m Spartacus’ scene as a guy who clearly can’t pass for Spartacus, but although the idea is stronger, the video’s languid buildup and cooldown lets it down. The reason why the short Pulp Fiction clip works every time is because it’s quick as hell. 

Meanwhile, Kelly hasn’t figured out quite what to do with himself while the longer videos play; taking a seat at the side of the stage doesn’t cut it. 

It feels like he’d play a lot better online where he wouldn’t need an immediate laugh for the footage, and he can’t be visibly disappointed in the event of a muted audience reaction. He has an unfortunate habit of telling a weak joke and then letting it hang for a long time waiting for a response instead of just moving on.

The presentational aspect is frustrating because there’s clearly an odd and ingenious comic mind under there somewhere, struggling to express itself in a way that plays to a live crowd.

Review date: 23 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Stand 2