Presumably one of the few stand-ups to be appearing at Edinburgh with his own three-piece backing band, Phil Nicol returns to the Stand with a shaggy-dog story of a set, involving a cast of Phil's Canadian flatmates, The Rolling Stones, and an unexpected star in a Japanese stalker called Hiro.
Having won the if.eddies (formerly the Perrier) comedy award last year with his hi-octane performance, 2007's set is similar in tone, only just staying on this side of a dark madness.
Starting from a tale about a gig in a London music club, Phil Nicol gets us in the mood by banging out a few good tunes from the likes of Billie Holliday, The Sex Pistols, Louis Armstrong and, essentially to the act, The Rolling Stones. I was surprised at just how good he was at these covers, until he revealed later that he had appeared in the London West-end version of Boy George's musical 'Taboo'. The act is topped, tailed and punctuated throughout by some pretty good sounds from Phil and his three-piece backing band a definite bonus when added to some pretty decent comedy.
I'll let you find out for yourself where the tale goes, but it's a well put-together romp through a few weeks of his life when he found himself (and his unwilling flatmates) giving a mad Japanese stalker a temporary home in London, while Hiro (the stalker) pursued an unhealthy interest in The Rolling Stones.
Ultimately, this is a good solid hour of comedy, clearly from the same stable as last year's innovative masterpiece. However, like the notoriously difficult second album, there's just slight hint of something missing from this that makes it harder to feel as wholly drawn in. The tale is just as mad as last year, but somehow more recognisably a drawn-out shaggy-dog story and therefore less compelling.
A funny beast then, and worth an hour of your time if you like your comedy dark and dirty, twisted and loud. All in all, it's a good show, but not quite this year's ticket to kill for.
