Performer: Dan James
Venue: The Loft at Laughing Horse @ The Counting House
Date and time: 12th August, 12.15am
Running time: 50 minutes
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5
Reviewer: Kaitlyn Smith
There’s something incredibly refreshing about a comedian who walks on stage and immediately trusts that their material is funny enough to get the room going. Dan James does exactly that.
No lengthy warm-up, no immediate interrogation of the front row, just straight into it. And I genuinely loved the fact that he went straight in (wink wink)
From there, it’s riff after riff. A PowerPoint covering some of the most obnoxious people you’re likely to encounter at the Fringe with them all being previous of his own audience members. This sets the tone, and James barely gives himself time to recover from one joke before another arrives. At one point, “fag Matt Rife strikes again” enters the conversation, which should probably tell you everything you need to know about the kind of beautifully chaotic hour we’re dealing with.
What struck me most, though, was how conversational James is. It doesn’t feel like watching somebody desperately trying to perform comedy at you. It feels like speaking to your funniest bestie over a drink while they tell you increasingly ridiculous stories and observations.
That’s what makes the whole thing work so well. There will obviously be scripted and carefully constructed sections underneath it all, but James delivers them with such ease that you almost forget you’re watching a prepared stand-up show. Nothing feels overly rehearsed or forced. He gives the impression that this is genuinely just how his brain works and, luckily for everyone in the room, his brain is very funny.
He also doesn’t seem to realise quite how funny he is.
There’s an effortless quality to his delivery that means even the smaller comments hit. He can throw something away conversationally and get as much of a reaction as another comedian might get from an enormous set-up and punchline. I saw Dan James on his last night and he was consistently selling out. Next year I’m looking forward to a full run instead of a single week.
