This may be Branum’s first show at the Edinburgh Fringe, but he’s no fresh-faced ingenue. He’s an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning comic, a large imposing man in his 50s, and he’s giving a lecture, with slides, addressing the question as to whether he has any purpose in existing. It’s a bold hypothesis that he absolutely rinses, diving into religious and scientific avenues to uncover inbuilt homophobia and anti-fat bias in the stories we are told about humanity. Branum is clever, he is amusing, he is strict in his lecture etiquette, and he rations out his pathos like a teacher with limited gold stars to give. What results is the one-man show he says from the off he never wanted to do and yet does with eloquence and heart, package-ready for Netflix or any other streaming platforms.
‘Be Fruitful’ sets itself up strongly to explore exactly how society views childless and overweight people in an almost academic way. The slides, the history, the pre-history, the stories we are told of evolution. There’s a smart way he has of exposing the absence of spaces for the people like him without actually attacking the groups that are doing the locking out. He highlights the benefits of religion, and yet there is no religion actively for gay people he argues. The nifty use of an ‘AWW’ board assigned to an audience representative to be used “only three times” also curtails excessive soppiness or pity allowing him to crack on through his presentation uninterrupted for the most part.
Branum has done something beautifully clever in ‘Be Fruitful’, utilising his years of experience and skills as a writer and performer to ask a big question engagingly and logically. And then break the form with heart and art. He can be brusque, strict even, but his comedy skills are undeniable, creating a show that is fruitful for the noggin, sparking electrons and provoking thoughts along fresh pathways.
Guy Branum: Be Fruitful, 20.30, Billiard Room at Gilded Balloon Teviot, 5-31 August
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/guy-branum-be-fruitful
