Gathering a bunch of your mates to do some low brow slots on a late night comedy show doesn’t really count as a ‘rotating line-up of the world’s best comedians dissecting current events, getting political and putting society right,’ even if you do put in a short quiz at the end with a couple of questions about the Olympics. Only one panellist felt sure that they knew the name of Scotland’s first minister!
However, the complete mis-branding of this show is not to say that it didn’t have a few funny moments. Xavier Toby works well as the host and easily interacts with the audience, flaunting his savvy Australian charm and encouraging them to join in if they’re funny. Yet the fact that the guests were all friends of his rather than the promised ‘world’s best comedians’ was really quite obvious.
Chris Henry opened the apolitical guest slots by playing hard on the fact that he was one of only three resident Scots in the room with the old ‘Edinburgians hate the Fringe’ attitude. Morven Smith followed with a warning about why it’s never a good idea to go commando but seemed a little too scared to get any big laughs off of the audience. Martin Dockery was definitely a good choice, using his trademark story-telling skills to regale the audience with tales of his travels around West Africa and how he caught salmonella off of a hermit crab.
Since this was only a preview it’s not unlikely that things will get better, but if they don’t then this is definitely not a must-see with so many other similar shows available.
