DOES the thought, “Damn, this guy got life right!” ever hit you like an InterCity 125 at top speed?
That was my reaction to Joe Sib who delivered an utterly sublime, mesmerising show.
Basically, and pardon my French, Vicar, he decided to grab life by the balls, just go for it, and this is the tale of how a single day led him to Edinburgh via skateboarding, punk rock bands, opening for Metallica and starting a seminal record label.
By the time he got round to telling us that he was friends with the Ramones, singer Joey giving him a salad bowl as a wedding gift – “the only thing I kept in my divorce” – my envy knew no bounds.
But it wasn’t a negative jealousy, just one based on sheer admiration and the fact that Joe is simply one of the most engaging stage presences I have ever encountered.
As pathetic as it sounds, I found myself thinking, “I want to be his friend like Joey.”
I knew I’d like him straight from the get-go as I was sat there thinking, “Hell, this guy looks like the Fonz” and his opening remarks included him overhearing a lady in a queue asking, “Why is Henry Winkler in Edinburgh?”
This isn’t stand-up, though there are laughs a-plenty, it’s storytelling and I could have sat there all night as this warm, born storyteller explained how December 27, 1981 changed his life when his dad took him to a skatepark and as his son made friends and soaked up the punk-rock soundtrack, shouted, “Joe, these are your people!”
What makes the fact that I was so blown away by this show all the more remarkable is that I was one of only five people to see Joe that night as the Fringe had been buffeted by Storm Floris with people staying away and venues closing.
But that simply didn’t matter, particularly as at the end of the show he introduced the guy sitting next to me as his college room-mate who had flown in with his wife specifically to see Joe’s debut at the Fringe – and he put up a photo of the two of them “back in the day” with grins as big as mine at this remarkable hour.
Be warned, Joe is a hugger as I found out at the end of the show when we briefly spoke about our shared love of the cult punk rock sci-fi movie Repo Man.
Go see.
Joe Sib: California Calling is at the Gilded Balloon – Pip @ Appleton Tower until August 24 (not 11).
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/joe-sib-california-calling
