Where on earth do you start with Tony Law? I feel like this is a question that has haunted reviewers for many a fringe.. So I’ll stall and talk about the venue whilst I work out where to start.

I hadn’t actually visited the Monkey Barrel before but any fringe venue that lets you keep the glass bottles is pretty confident about the quality of its acts. This is a surprisingly spacious venue that lends itself incredibly well to comedy – we’ll definitely be back.

Anyway, back to the task at hand… I hadn’t see Tony Law before but was given the description of ‘surreal’ at the start of the show – doesn’t really help does it?

Our clown hits the stage already fully in flow and up to speed. After the first few minutes the only way I can think to describe the delivery is it’s a bit like watching Robin Williams do improv… It’s a whirling dervish of accents, facial expressions, poses and characters that – even if they don’t even all quite hit – make you chuckle along with the genial absurdity of the show.

I can’t really talk about material, because God only knows what will actually be in the version you see and I can’t talk about themes because the Fringe program apparently ruined that by spell checking and incorrectly correcting the show’s original name!

All I can confirm is that I thoroughly enjoyed this clown’s hour of madness, we laughed a lot and just because you can’t categorise something easily doesn’t mean that it’s wrong.

If this clown thinks he was a steam boat captain in 1840s Russia then who are we to argue? Just get me a ticket to board that ship.

This is an incredibly fun clown that I reckon everyone who enjoys comedy in all forms should definitely experience at least once.

Clown Stars: * * * *

 @Monkey Barrel – Edinburgh