Known on Twitter for his brilliant one-liners, Gary Delaney unveils his first solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe. One of his many followers, Emma McAlpine, can't wait to check it out.
At one point during Gary Delaney’s show Purist, he tells us a gag about how he manages to remember so many one-liners during the space of an hour. It’s good, and if we weren’t thinking how impressive his memory was up until that point, we certainly are by the end of the show – he must have told several hundred jokes or more. This is his debut Fringe appearance, although he’s been performing his unadulterated brand of sharp one-liners on the comedy circuit for years.
With an enormous backlog of material to draw from, all are of a high standard, with only a few producing groans. Full of clever wordplay, his jokes vary from the clean to the delightfully twisted. I recognise one or two from his Twitter page and would be tempted to give some examples but as Delaney tells us that most get to his audience before he does, I’ll hold off.
He freely admits that an hour of straight gags could get monotonous so he’s engineered some interactive games and visual devices to break it up. It works well, particularly a dynamite section where he shows us various pages on Wikipedia he’s hijacked.
Delaney differs from a lot of one-liner specialists out there in terms of style. While he tells us he isn’t much cop at chatting to audiences, he makes considerable effort to connect with us throughout the show, even explaining the punchlines a few times for anyone who might not have got the joke. Rather than deadpanning his way through gags, he tends to end each one with either a sheepish gasp or an impish chuckle, often commenting on our response as much as the joke. Having gauged our sense of humour, he then finishes with a brutal assault of dark one-liners that cause hoots of laughter to ripple through the crowd.
It’s a strong debut show from Delaney, who must surely earn his place amongst the Tim Vines and Jimmy Carrs of this world. Plus, anyone who can deliver five knockout punchlines about a donkey’s cock, has to be applauded.
Gary Delaney: Purist will be at the Pleasance Cellar from 4-29th August at 8:30pm.
Return to the Edinburgh Fringe homepage
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...