Stuart Goldsmith can win an audience over in seconds. He’s chatty, charming and quite genuinely friendly. He is happy to interact with his audience and his warm and open demeanour makes them more willing to talk back than usual. The majority of his act is observational, anecdotes from his life presented through the lens of his neuroses and dysfunctions. Goldsmith portrays himself as the classic neurotic man, but for all that he acts as though his viewpoint is unique, it is entirely relatable. This is the triumph and the weakness of his stand-up - it’s not especially innovative or original, but does what has been done a thousand times before with a smile and a polish that makes it feel somewhat more fresh.Still, Goldsmith manages consistent laughs despite a lack of powerful punchlines or any gems of wordplay or wit, and there is something rather endearing about a man in his early thirties earnestly explaining his bizarre thought processes when teenagers get on to a bus or how he’s quite simply not able to cope with everyday life unless there is a crisis he can take command of; who doesn’t want to mother a manchild at least a little bit?
