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Trevor Lock: How to Drink a Glass of Water

 
Lily Crooke Review by Lily Crooke 4 Published: 17 Aug 2025 Hoots @ The Apex Show Dates: 1 Aug 2025-24 Aug 2025

Being asked to compose a rhyming couplet about a stranger was an unwelcome reminder of high school English for a lunchtime Fringe comedy set. Thankfully, the comparison between Trevor Lock’s new show How to Drink a Glass of Water and third-set English class ends there, sort of. Equal parts intellectual and banal, Lock takes the audience on a philosophical and personal journey in his first written show since 2011.

There is sure to be something that rings true in this beautiful hour of comedy

Questions about how the audience discovered his show quickly derail into confessional, honest declarations that come in the form of questions for the crowd. Lock writes new definitions of letters from the dictionary, imagines a series of surreal hipster restaurants and creates a long list rewriting Shakespeare’s line All the World’s a Stage. Even without a microphone (blame the Fringe mafia for that one) Lock sweeps the audience up in a series of questions, lists and instructions that feel almost like poetic or comedic exercises. From pooing in someone else’s house to feeling like you’ve never truly been known by anyone else, there is sure to be something that rings true in this beautiful hour of comedy.

Lock is known for his comedy shows that revolve around audience participation, such as Community Circle, the highly praised interactive social experiment that has appeared regularly at the Fringe since 2017. Although we are invited to put our hands up and share in his frank honesty, Lock also seems content to let the audience sit back and let him take the reins. When he eventually reads out the couplets, they are made touching and funny more by his spot-on delivery than the poems themselves.

Prompted by a misspelt text, Lock imagines his life flashing before his eyes in a captivating final sequence. This is something a bit different for Lock, a show that reveals more about the comedian himself than the audience member sitting next to us. Switching masterfully between philosophical musings, spot-on observations and personal confessions about relationships and bodily functions, Lock seems well within his comfort zone despite the new territory.

Combining humour and poetry, this brand-new comedy set will have you wondering why Trevor Lock isn’t a household name. Lock’s style of comedy feels like what the classroom could have been in an alternate reality if school was entertaining and taught you how to live your life. Part stand-up, part brazen confessional spoken word, forget genre and leave expectations at the door in this beautiful and poetic hour of comedy.

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The Blurb:

In his first written show in a decade, expect stand-up and poetry as well as lists and suggestions from the maverick Lock as he attempts to reinvent Bingo, rewrite the English dictionary and provide concise instructions as to the correct way to imbibe a glass of H2O. 'Superbly comic writing' (Sunday Times). 'Utterly improbably, absolutely entertaining' (Independent). 'A show like no other' (Scotsman). 'Walks like Dudley Moore, talks like Peter Cook' (Kate Moss).