Sunday 1 September 2024

Dara O'Briain : My Life is a Work in Progress (Work in Progress), Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

 Very much still a Work in progress, and one of two different versions he has on the go at the moment (intending to merge the best of both into the final product), but more than slick enough to provide great entertainment.  He did give his script to a guy in the front row, telling him to write down the odd word as indicated, when something new worked well.

And so much did work well.  Stories from his life, and career.  A large middle aged man learning to ski badly makes for a great self-deprecating tale.

But the highlight came in the second half of the set.  Having previously done a show about finding his birth mother (he was adopted as a baby), this was the story of trying to find out who his father was, and making contact if possible.  It’s a long tale, with unexpected twists, and some sad moments, some tense moments, but O’Briain never lets it get uncomfortable and always finds a punchline.  Punchline after punchline.

A hilarious and well structured hour that shows a comedian at the height of his powers.  But does he always have to talk so fast? Some it was lost simply from there being too many syllables in not enough seconds!

During the show Dara mentioned that the prequel to his father-search story was on iPlayer in his stand up show, So Where Were We?  It covers how he made contact with his birth mother, and is just as funny/sad as this live show was.

No comments:

Post a Comment