You would be forgiven for thinking, having read the title of Carl Donnelly’s new show, that it was somehow spooky. That’s my thought at least- as well as one of my fellow audience members who says just before Carl comes on: “I hope it’s not too scary!”.
We’re both mistaken as it happens. The show has nothing goosebump, nor boosegump, inducing about it. It’s simply a guy, with a mic, telling stories of how well he’s been doing. Carl is a fringe vet. This year will be his 18th festival appearance, he tells us. Maybe this is why he just wants to be chill and think about the good things in life. Then again, maybe that should be credited to his recent move to coastal Australia.
Regardless it’s nice to have a stand up seem at his ease on stage. It’s a thoroughly cool, calm, and collected set which speaks to his years of experience. The show isn’t even particularly bothered to have a theme or narrative arc. Carl is quite comfortable just to meander through his material at his own pace. Perhaps the only point recurrent enough to qualify as partial theme for the show is the comic’s body and personality changes approaching middle age. It’s popular with our audience and I warm to him too, particularly in the second half of the performance where he finds a bit more oomph (I’m not trying to make him sound geriatric. He’s only in his 40s, I promise he’s just very chilled).
His remembrance of an old Billy Connolly prostate exam bit once told on tour across Australia in the 70s, which he got to replicate himself, feels fitting for the perspective this year’s show offered. That of being a comedian with nothing left to prove coming back yet again, for no other reason than he can, and that he still loves telling jokes.
Carl Donnelly: Boosegumps, Pleasance Courtyard, 21:00, until August 25.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/carl-donnelly-boosegumps
