Edinburgh comedy stalwarts the Stand have a couple of new venues this year over the road on York Place, and Carey Marxs new show Careyness take place in the more intimate Stand 4, or the comedy conference room as Marx refers to it.
The theme of the show is to explore subjects comedy audiences feel uncomfortable with, ending with a run down of a top ten of offensiveness. This is both a risky and sensible strategy. Risky because, as he notes, it involves dropping the bombs that silence the crowd. Sensible because he has created the space to talk about these off limits subjects. And inevitably its a strategy that will only work if he keeps the laughs coming thick and fast and they certainly do.
His delivery is assured, and it has to be when dealing with this subject matter. In part he gets away with it because he seems so affable. Talking about his friends Jeremy and Patricia makes you imagine that youre also one of his pals, and hes explaining all this just for own benefit and the cosy venue adds to this effect. His slick, twisted logic that sees him take his own arguments and turn them on their head, making you question your own assumptions. I particularly liked his rubbishing of the you have to be one to make fun of one attitude that says that only midgets (to quote his example) can make fun of midgets.
I was going to say that this not a show for the easily offended, but on reflection I think it might be just the thing. By taking us on a journey around what causes offence, he makes the audience understand a little more. Whether that would stop him getting complaints about gags involving onions or the use of the c word remains to be seen.
