Us seeing this show was purely down to fate and chance. We had a window of time to kill and (unsurprisingly) whilst we were pontificating we were hit with a series of flyers for that time.

As is often the case we hadn’t heard of any of these acts but at the fringe that certainly doesn’t mean that they’re not worth seeing. A series of coin flips later and we were left with a Kiwi clown called Guy Montgomery. 

At the start of the show we were asked to write down our moments of greatest shame and put the notes anonymously into a bucket on the stage. Shows built around this premise are notoriously hard to pull off but fortunately this was merely a McGuffin to keep the show rolling.

This is a clown with a story to tell, he moved to America at the very start of the Trump administration and even though this is not a political show it does start the ball rolling on some of the poor decisions that have punctuated his life to date.

The storytelling is thoughtful, well observed and genuinely funny. Tales from his youth are instantly relatable and his frustrations with aspects of life as an adult earn a knowing nod from the room.

Coin flips rarely lead to quality shows but on this night the fringe gods were shining down and we left feeling like we’d uncovered a real gem of a clown.

P. S. Although he really should never have said that about Kelly Clarkson 😀

Clown Stars: * * * *

@Assembly Rooms – Edinburgh