If the Noise Next Door were a boy band then Tom Houghton would be the Bobby Brown, the Robbie Williams, the Zane. He was the breakaway performer from a group on the rise and the bravery and risks associated with that move has hit each of them in very different ways.

Tom first came to our attention as a couple of our pals actually went to University with TNND and it was because of this connection that we reviewed their fringe show a couple of years ago.

Since leaving the group Tom has had an impressive couple of years including two critically lauded shows and a memorable performance on Roast Battle against fellow up and comer Lauren Pattinson.

So when the opportunity arose to catch his latest show we were fully on board… Unfortunately on this night things didn’t quite go to script.

Our clown walks out to a Busted soundtrack (check show name) wearing the fanciest ever version of a school disco outfit – Ralph Lauren shirt, club tie etc etc – because today’s show was all about elite boarding school and the people that attend.

There is some genuinely funny material here and the explanation of the invention of rugby is a thing of beauty but all too often the quality material gets lost in a sea of confusion.

Tom seems to be trying to both denigrate and defend the stereotypical type of person that graduates from a boarding school.

At times they are horrific bullies and misogynists… Who we should feel sorry for because their life of privilege didn’t correctly prepare them for the outside world.

They gain easy access to positions of power and wealth and actively look down on the rest of us… But we need to understand that they have been told that they are better than us since they were 6 and as they are actually part of the top 7% so technically they’re right.

It’s an incredibly difficult narrative to make work and right at the heart of it, stands a clown who seems to truly loathe the educational system that he was raised in and yet wants us to empathise with the individuals who have taken maximum advantage of that very system.

At the end of the show is a heartfelt plea for communication and change which no one in the room would disagree with, it’s just a shame that it follows such a confused narrative.

We don’t believe that tonight’s incarnation offers up a fair representation of this clown’s true talents but on this night it really wasn’t what we went to school for.

Clown Stars: * * *

 @The Pleasance – Edinburgh