EDINBURGH 2018: Review: Gary Delaney: Gagster's Paradise, Pleasance Beyond
As one-liner comics go, you'd be hard pushed to find anyone as close to the top of their game as Gary Delaney. Building his following from regular appearances on BBC's Mock the Week, his show has become a beg, steal or borrow ticket at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and it's easy to see why.
In a painfully hilarious one-hour set, he sets out to do only one thing: make his audience laugh. Before he even steps foot on the stage, a large screen projecting some of his best Tweets have the audience in hysterics. As warm-up acts go, doing it yourself has taken on a whole new meaning.
We gain a little insight into Delaney's creative process in the show; he scrubs some jokes from his set that don't land bang on (less than a handful) and adds a few new ones in their place in each time. He clearly has a passion for gags, and what he presents comes across as a true labour of his love.
Delaney revels in the occasional wince that his audience emit; the idea that his comedy is risky is one in which he revels. It is utterly obvious that none of this 'shocking' comedy comes from a bad place, hence there is never any feeling of awkwardness or hatred in his act. Nothing at all is off limits for this boundary-pusher and his audience knows it.
From ridiculous supermarket labelling to his fictitious comedy family, Delaney's jokes are totally relentless and funnier by the minute. In this hour-long joke-a-thon, there really is no let-up, yet the audience still beg for more as the final gag is delivered.
Gangster's Paradise is unmissable comedy at its very best. Fans of quick-witted laughs need look no further than to watch this modern master of comedy at work.
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