EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 2009: Matt Price - My Girlfriend Was Attacked By A Small-Time Wannabe Gangster And This Is What I Did About It, The GRV, August 6 2009

Eighteen months ago comedian Matt Price’s girlfriend was attacked by small-time wannabe gangsters and here’s what he did about it - he wrote one of the most touching and memorable (and hottest) shows at this year’s Fringe.

Large, lumbering twinkly Cornishman Price is by no means the finest comic or the one with the best material but what he has is a charisma that makes you want to just listen and that, in comedic terms, is half the battle.

The premise of the show and the very real thing that happened to his girlfriend enables Price to take a trip back through his own childhood and his own encounters with violence. Along the way we hear some tragic tales and plenty of “you can’t make this shit up” stories. For example, his dad is gay and his mother, shall we say, popular with the locals, resulting in violent street brawls. His next-door neighbour growing up was a prostitute, Price himself used to be a boxer and later wrote a book about boxing. He also draws on his experience at a one-off comic, Johnny Cash-style, at Broadmoor, the scene for few laughs at the time but a rich source of post-event comedy.

His girlfriend’s deafness as a result of the attack (she was kicked in the head by an upstairs neighbour) prompts some unexpectedly warm material about the deaf and sign language, of course, done to death in the past by other comics, but in Price’s hands is authentic and relevant.

This is Price’s debut show and, whilst it’s not the slickest, it shows a comedian with humanity and originality. 

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