Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

If you’re spending most of your Fringe seeing polished, machine-tooled shows that are being buffed up for touring or a run at the Soho Theatre, it’s sometimes beneficial to introduce some roughage to your diet in the form of an extremely chaotic late-night mixed bill. 

One of the better examples of that this year was Late Night With Terry Wogan, a ludic chat show hosted by Benjamin Alborough and featuring a line-up of comedians being interviewed in character as celebrities from the past. 

Alborough’s Wogan is kind of an appealing presence. Even though he’s canonically escaped from hell and is completely insane, he genuinely captures some of that old Wogan magic with his cheery lightfooted style, almost as comfortable in his impersonation as the real Terry was on the air. I do wish he’d achieve the accent more consistently though. It always sounds so nice at the beginning of the show and then disappears when things get dicey.

Alborough, seated on a golden throne, is joined by a live house band who aren’t given much to do and a chat-show sidekick in the form of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, played very well by Will Sebag-Montefiore, although like most chat-show sidekicks it’s unclear what his role is meant to be.

The guests on the couch for this edition were a reasonably starry line-up: Jason Byrne as Tommy Cooper, Sam Campbell as Anthony Hopkins, Eleanor Morton as Andrew Lloyd-Webber (as the Phantom of the Opera) and Matt Tedford as Margaret Thatcher, all improvising their responses to some very silly questions from Wogan. 

Alborough’s cue cards full of questions are both the show’s greatest asset and the thing that prevents it from taking full flight. Most of them function as jokes in their own right, e.g. ‘Margaret Thatcher, you were the dominant political figure of the 1980s, but who was the submissive?’ but if anything they’re too funny – they force the guest into a straight person role from which they struggle to escape anew with every cue card, and they come too thick and fast, stifling improvisation. 

Not for nothing does Sam Campbell attempt to literally set them on fire with a stove lighter as soon as he steps on stage. The Wrestling match as Alborough attempts to save them is probably the night’s best moment, but it’s a match I wish Campbell had won.

Otherwise, it’s certainly chaotic, with fire, rogue musical stings from Morton, and abandoned plotlines cropping up regularly. Campbell is a clear highlight but the others do good work too, which is just as well because these shows live and die on the quality of the improvisers. 

The Glang Show and Absolute Monopoly both work so well because they achieve such looseness; Alborough just needs to relax his grip on the reins a little here.

Review date: 25 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Assembly George Square