Eric Davidson's blend of wordplay, poetry, rhyme, song and comedy is somewhat legendary among Fringe savants and he doesn't disappoint with his new show. It is a joyful and reasonably lighthearted (albeit a little uninspired) romp through Scottish culture, the upcoming referendum (which is happening in September, not sure if anyone's mentioned it. I personally feel it's been surprisingly underplayed at this years Fringe – said no one ever) and Davidson's own life.
His poems are cheeky and fun and he covers a swath of topics with his jaunty verse, occasionally throwing in pleasurable rhymes just for the fun of it.
Some of his gags are a little predictable, not due to Davidson's writing particularly, but just because he has taken his comic inspiration from the stock themes of comedy in 2014. Jokes about Putin's sexuality and the aforementioned referendum are certainly amusing, but do seem a bit stale.
That being said, when Davidson approaches these themes with a more idiosyncratic style - for example a poem about global warming from the point of view of a chimpanzee stood atop a giant panda in Edinburgh zoo - he hits on some real gold. His poems are cheeky and fun and he covers a swath of topics with his jaunty verse, occasionally throwing in pleasurable rhymes just for the fun of it. “If only Sherlock Holmes was no good at solving cases”, he muses during a poem about our relationship with the arts, “if only Scooby Doo was as good as Wacky Races”. He also uses the charming sing-song of his voice to aid his poems; only a man with a Scottish lilt such as Davidson's can get away with rhyming the words “good” and “lid”.
Davidson even manages to develop some genuine pathos with a beautiful poem about McCray's Battalion which displays that Davidson is a lot more than a comic talent – he is also capable of tackling serious subjects in an interesting and provocative way.
