EDINBURGH 2011: BWW Reviews: I FED MY BEST FRIEND HER FAVOURITE COW, Gilded Balloon, Aug 11 2011

In the intriguingly-titled I Fed My Best Friend Her Favourite Cow, James Sherwood explores what it means to be a good person or a bad person. He uses stand up comedy and dry observations about his own behaviour, to try and determine whether he is essentially good or bad, while also questioning whether we can really define ourselves as either on the Good-Bad continuum. The stand up is interspersed with original songs, which humourously illustrate the ideas he explores, such as 'Beverley Tring Did a Bad Thing'.

Overall the piece works well. While it was a little slow to find its stride, it does eventually get there and draws the audience in to a well-structured set of observations, and encourages them to participate with questions about whether they believe they are essentially good or bad. The songs seemed to be more polished than the stand-up material itself, but Sherwood's natural manner is engaging nonetheless, and after the slow start the show is paced well.

An enjoyable show with dry observational humour and well-crafted, original songs.