Guitarist and vocalist of Corky and the Juice Pigs, and Edinburgh Comedy Award winning Phil nichol is celebrating his 20th anniversary at the fringe, and as such is bringing his best material from the past two decades into a big bonanza show.
The word I would use to describe the show is 'chaotic'. If I had a second, it would be 'crass'. Over the course of an hour Nichol will restart the show multiple times, lifting the introduction from various other shows he has done over the years to convey the progression he has made, and if I was to read into it far too much, perhaps provide a commentary on the changing nature of comedy. In reality though, I just don't think Nichol felt like writing a whole new show for the year.
There were plenty of laughs, although it was hard to ascertain exactly what for. Nichol himself is obviously very talented, both as a musician and a stand-up (he has had twenty shows at the fringe after all) but didn't really seem invested in being funny, per se. it seemed more his style to just ramble and shout, making increasingly explicit sex jokes to an audience laughing out of the sheer awkwardness of it all.
Plenty of material was legitimately funny in its own right, such as the insistence that his mum, dad and uncle were in the audience, and the cringeworthy head licking that went on. But just as much of the show, if not more, just failed to make any sort of impact. I love dark humour, and am certainly an advocate of crass - however, continually falling back on it does come close to falling into schoolboy territory.
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Phil Nichol: Twenty is performing at Assembly Checkpoint at 21:45. Tickets and more information is available here
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