one4review | On 11, Aug 2025

At the show I attended, Tony Law took one look at me and said “You look like a reviewer. Good luck trying to review this ****ing thing.”. And it speaks to the talent and experience of the man that he was right on the money. How do you describe an act like Tony Law?

Here’s my attempt – Watching a Tony Law gig is like you’re watching a drunken man in a park loudly talking to himself and some nearby pigeons about everything he can see, some things that happened to him the other day and a few ideas that came to him a while back. If the drunken man was hilarious, he wasn’t drunk and, when not shouting at pigeons, he was Professor of Nautical Studies at a nearby university. It’s like you took the distillation of all the anecdotes everyone’s hilarious, unhinged uncle who once turned up to Christmas dinner in a tutu and threw it in your eyes. It’s as if Quint from Jaws went into standup rather than shark hunting and was also Canadian. It’s all those moments you remember from Eddie Izzard specials when she seemed to lose her way in the middle of a bit. It’s a bit like someone replaced Ross Noble with a distracted lighthouse keeper. It’s a blast.

Bringing his trademark stream of consciousness nonsense mixed with some truly wonderful pre-prepared whimsy, expat Canadian Tony Law is back at the Fringe in the somewhat ignominious bowels of what, outside of August, functions as the Hive nightclub. The first half of the show mostly consisted of Law observing our less than glamourous surroundings including a smell which he accurately described as “mediaeval”. And it does feel an odd place to find him – Law is a great talent. His brand of high-energy silliness has been honed almost to an art form and from almost the first moment the entire audience were on board with what he called the “Tone Zone” and ready to laugh along as it took them on whatever flight of fancy Law could envision.

There doesn’t seem to be any reason why Tony Law isn’t more of a household name, packing out larger venues without the distinct smell of various bodily fluids. Potentially there are those who find his style too random and whimsical, but I can only imagine those in a minority. If you like your comedy feel-good and random, you won’t find better.

*****
Reviewed by Tom
Monkey Barrel – Hive
19.05 (1hr)
Until 13 Aug