Listen, I just want to reassure my family right from the get-go that I did not join in with any “Up the ’Ra” chants in the course of this show. I may be a lapsed Ulster Protestant these days, but, you know, there are limits.
Oh, this is dangerous fun. There’s a special joy in seeing a comedian who is totally in control of his material, who keeps pushing the boundaries, who is smarter and quicker than anyone else in the room, who unapologetically believes that comedy is an art form and is doing his best to prove it. Angelone is all of these things and more.
Born in Belfast two years before the Good Friday Agreement was signed, Angelone was a ceasefire baby from a half-Irish, half-Italian family and his world view has been shaped by growing up in Northern Ireland (as I’d say) or the north of Ireland (as he would).
But if this is the base foundation of his comedy – that awareness of division, and of the sense that the only context available for anyone who doesn’t know his homeland is the Troubles – it is not the be all and end all of it.
This is a show that is knowing, provocative, risk-taking and self-aware, while never losing sight of the task in hand; to make people laugh. There are routines about Northern Ireland, natch (Gerry Adams makes an appearance), but also autism, TV producers, comedy reviewers, Richard Osman’s House of Games, his regrets about playing Dubai and Deliveroo.
There’s a real grace on show as Angelone dances from idea to idea, punchline to punchline, testing his audience to keep up with him. On this evidence, it is very much worth the effort to at least try.
Vittorio Angelone: you can’t Say Nothing any more, Monkey Barrel 1, 19.35, until August 24
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/vittorio-angelone-you-can-t-say-nothing-any-more
Vittorio Angelone will be doing extra shows at McEwan Hall on Friday, August 8 and and Friday, August 22, both at 23.00
