one4review | On 12, Aug 2025

Those who have seen Ray O’Leary before will be familiar with his signature grey suit and deadpan, drawling delivery of surprising punchlines. His 2025 show Laughter? I Hardly Know Her proves this as a winning formula.

There’s no particular theme to the show; it begins with a story of his unsolicited autism diagnosis from a stranger and thereafter touches on a range of topics such as the band Coldplay and Ray’s attempts to decorate his home. The show feels streamlined and polished thanks to his cleverly crafted jokes and well-timed call backs. Although it first seems like a familiar and classic stand-up set, O’Leary’s comedy is much bolder than this and takes surprising turns. He is willing to interfere with a tried-and-true format and the expected flow of the show and take it in a more experimental direction (at one point, he treats the audience to a Borat impression in circumstances you couldn’t possibly expect). Despite his somewhat meek and awkward persona, O’Leary does not shy away from comedy’s more controversial topics, offering ironic and satirical observations and feigning disgust with the audience when they laugh at the punchlines.

Towards the end, O’Leary involves a couple of audience members in a task to perfectly conclude the show (the details of which I won’t spoil here). I found this aspect of this show particularly impressive as the set-up O’Leary used allowed for a comfortable relationship with the participants – he is adept at extracting the humour from their interactions without being antagonistic or pushing them too far. Overall, this conclusion is excellent and allows O’Leary to hit each comedic note of the show one final time. Much like the rest of this show, it perfectly showcases his strength as a performer.

****

Reviewed by Niamh O’Hara

Pleasance Beside

18.05 to 19.05

Until 24^th August