one4review | On 20, Aug 2024

As might be obvious from its title, this show is a raging, manic mishmash of character comedy and anarchic jokes. Aidan Pittman plays the famous veterinarian with the ability to talk to the animals as he recounts one of his insane globe-trotting adventures which features in his newly released autobiography. Throughout he covers topics as diverse as how you too can learn to speak to the animals, his many recent scandals that have kept him off television and what it’s like to constantly be mistaken for Eddie Murphy.

The show contains all the ingredients for excellent Fringe comedy theatre; a charismatic lead who wears a costume far too hot to be doing an hour’s worth of physical theatre in, music, sound effects, homemade props, audience participation, a PowerPoint presentation and of course, very silly jokes. Pittman performs Dolittle as a feverish and slightly camp TV animal expert with an unhinged glint in his eye and never failed to get a laugh. There’s an originality and attention to detail in the writing and production that put this show a little beyond your standard one-man theatre fare, such as the very well edited video clips where Pittman was edited into existing nature documentaries. In particular the remote control props actually working as intended throughout felt like a tiny miracle when almost every other show this year seemed plagued by technical problems.

This is not the highest budget show and its wordy and nerdy humour might not be for everyone, but personally it was a show I was looking forward to from the moment I first read the title and it did not disappoint.

*****
Reviewed by Tom
Underbelly Cowgate – Delhi Belly
17.25 (1hr)
Until 25th August