one4review | On 14, Aug 2019

Huge Davies delivers an hour of deadpan musical comedy wearing a strap on keyboard. It is a carefully crafted show full of jokes that creep up on you unawares with belly laughs a plenty. It isn’t the grand musical in a carpark he planned, involving much getting in and out of vans. The convoluted synopsis of which we are delivered sans the bells and whistles, but lots of great pay offs. The material always veers into a dark place and then keeps on pushing a bit further. As he says himself, he only knows how to tell jokes about death. He makes full use of the classic Yamaha settings to deliver up gags about ice cream vans, gladiators and nightmarish scenarios involving Wallace and Gromit. There is some very clever material about casual racism towards Asians woven through the show with real skill and lightness of touch. Huge Davies knows how to make a crowd uncomfortable and twist the tension in the room, especially if your singing of heads, shoulders, knees and toes is not up to scratch. At the end of the show there is a heartfelt thanks for taking a punt on a new comedian. He’s even written up his own personal list of recommendations of new comics, which he gives out at the end of the show. It’s a great reminder to us all of what Edinburgh should be about; discovering new things and Huge Davies is one such discovery.
****
Reviewed by Sarah
Pleasance – Bunker 3
20.15 (1hr)
Until 25h