Ben Pope is an utter delight as he presents his work in progress show, notes to one side for just the occasional reference but really he doesn’t need them. He’s engaging from the off, a connoisseur of the workshopping relationship of his format and ready to pepper out punchlines at such a pace that any falling less than enthusiastically are swiftly swept up and away by the next. His love affair with wordplay is enjoyably reciprocal, as he conjures unexpected metaphors and vivid storytelling with aplomb. He could easily simply have an hour of well-crafted jokes, but The Cut is a show of loss twofold – firstly, of a physical part of himself as he shares the tale of his recent circumcision, and secondly… well, that is a touching reveal further into the heart of the piece skilfully delivered with tenderness and still somehow the same pace of punchlines, quieter and artfully placed.
This is an engaging personal piece, rattling along with a delivery that leaps and twists in such a way that the hour is energised by the free changes of pace and whimsy. Pope commits to each topic, eyes rolling and bodily demonstrating elements, so that it’s easy to see not only the brightly coloured pictures he paints but the subtler hues of his stories, sharing details of his recent first love – complete with comedy alias, an enjoyable recurring motif that just adds to the relentless punchlines – and fond relationship with his parents.
As a work in progress, with a deadline to completion marching up with the Edinburgh Fringe in August, this rendition of The Cut is a blueprint at this stage, but it promises so much. My face never lost its smile or was far from a laugh. All that’s left is to see what makes the cut… in The Cut.
Laughing Horse @ The Quadrant, 4 May 2024, 14.15 (Also running May 11, 2.15pm, and May 18), 16.45
Brighton Fringe: Ben Pope: The Cut
