Humans are storytellers. We tell stories about ourselves and each other throughout our lives; sometimes to entertain, sometimes to inform and sometimes to impose a little bit of order on what is often a chaotic world. Scott Gibson’s stories fall very much into the first category. In his latest Fringe show he once again proves himself to be an accomplished comedian and often funny storyteller.
An accomplished comedian and often funny storyteller
In the last couple of years Gibson has tackled both brain injury and his fractious relationship with his father, taking on very personal subjects through tales told with unflinching forthrightness, peppered with graphic and very adult jokes. This year the comic’s material is almost as weighty, covering ageing, death, travel and the kind of stories which make up a life.
So the audience is taken on a belly-laugh inducing, sometimes disjointed journey around Glasgow, Mexico and a range of Mediterranean locations popular with the Club 18-30 set. Gibson introduces us to a cast of characters which include an elderly royalist and a young beer monster. The humour is not for the faint of heart and would be far better served by a later slot in the day as we hear about everything from hospital wards to the holiday hijinks of Scottish youths abroad.
In the past Gibson has been characterised as a 'pub storyteller par excellence', but while there’s definitely an air of sitting around a boozer with your pals chatting about some raucous old times, the epithet is unfair. There is a lot of craft in the set, even if it is loses its way with a couple of lazy national stereotypes and a performance style which far too often tends towards shouty.
At the end of the show Gibson leaves on a message which is tonally a little different from the rest of the set, but thematically fits perfectly. It marks an appropriate conclusion to an hour of comedy which is well worth investing in.
