5 Stars *****

I’m willing to bet that if a straw poll was taken amongst his peers for the funniest comedian Carey Marx would come out very near the top, so why is it that he is not a household name? He won the major award, Best International Show inNew Zealandin 2009 and repeated this achievement in 2011 also. He is a star there and he bloody well should be one here too.

To a packed house late on a wet Fringe night Marx takes to the stage and owns the room from the opening seconds.

His material is superbly crafted and honed to razor sharpness, his delivery style precise, occasionally slightly edgy, and he goes with stuff that some lesser comic may baulk at. Yet,  like a naughty schoolboy, he has this disarmingly cheeky grin that somehow salves any excursions into the insalubrious.

As a craftsman of his art, he despairs on others using hack material, the tried and tested route to laughs, but judging once again on the night he was never short of laughs himself with yet another quality performance.

So do yourselves a favour, go and see him for yourself and see what you have been missing. It is a small room and tickets could well be hard to come by.

Reviewed by Geoff

Gilded Balloon Turret V 14

3 to 28 August ( not 15)

22:15 to 23:15

Fringe Brochure P 53