Since Tom Rosenthal last appeared at the Fringe this clown really has gone from strength to strength – TV shows like Plebs and Friday Night Dinner have pretty much made him a household name and I can see his acting career continuing to blossom as more people catch on.

As much as we are fans of those shows they are not the reason that we eagerly copped tickets. This clowns last stand-up show exceeded our expectations and we were genuinely excited to see him back on stage… Even if he was planning to spend an hour talking about his foreskin.

As the sold out crowd file in a video plays as a backdrop, it features a gold painted Tom dancing to a simple beat, the gold Tom is joined by a red Tom and then a leopard skin clad Tom completes the trio. The explanation for this seemingly arty video comes much later in the show but at this stage it is just a fun distraction whilst we wait for the show to begin.

Tom bursts on to the stage and immediately begins to build rapport with the crowd. This is a high energy show and as there aren’t a great many traditional “jokes” it lives and dies with the charisma of its clown. Luckily he is more than up to the challenge.

We start out with a little OCD material – including a look at an episode of Roast Battle that we won’t be able to watch in the same way ever again – before moving into the main topic of the peice, child circumcision… Yup, not exactly an obvious source of comedy.

I can’t really say much more without explaining most of the show, I can tell you that we – and the rest of the sold out crowd – laughed a lot and that really is all that matters at a comedy show.

This is a well researched, passion project delivered by a clown who absolutely understands his own style of delivery and how to work a crowd. I can only recommend you grab any tickets that you can find (the run may be sold out) as this clowns star is very much still on the rise.

Clown Stars: * * * * *

 

@The Pleasance, Edinburgh