Ed Mulvey: If You Laugh The Show Will Get Better
The Snug @ The Three Jolly Butchers
There’s an easy and confident rapport from Ed Mulvey as he swiftly explains the title of his show to warm us up and start the comedy ball rolling. It’s an hour-long club set travelling through Mulvey’s philosophies and musings, the whimsical and the ridiculous, frequently pondering sexual relationships and sex in general, but also necromancy, nazis, and surreal flights of fancy. All with the steady confidence of a man who can rescue any topics or punchlines that don’t land with topper-gags that do. It becomes easy to trust the title of his show.
Mulvey’s writing isn’t consistently funny, but it is consistently interesting – with laughs at such regularity when the comedy does work, it’s easy to be patient when he runs into comedy cul-de-sacs as we know we won’t be there for long. He gives the air of a man who is entertained by his own mind’s surreal and unique adventures and frequently finds it to be entertaining to others, but has not always edited the results with a ‘kill your darlings’ brutality required for the professional level he aspires to.
It’s an enjoyable show, with tangents into the odd bit of shock territory still to be worked out, but for the main engaging and original. Mulvey has a manner that coaxes out connection, and a well spoken awkward charm that skips through the ridiculous and encourages us to put on our wellies and join him in its mire.
