30 years ago Jack Dee finished as the runner up in the Perrier Award (along with Eddie Izzard and Lily Savage) behind winner Frank Skinner. I looked that up because I had a hazy memory of watching the ceremony on TV as a kid and because this show led me to two realisations.

The first, oh my god how much has that award fallen off the map, just look at that incredible list of finalists back then!!

And two, thanks to covid, all these years later, I have the privilege of seeing this absolute clown legend perform in a tent! Gotta love the Fringe.

The last time I saw Jack Dee perform live was at the Hammersmith Apollo many years ago… he nailed it, 5 star reviews all round and a standing ovation from the sold out crowd. But that is what you expect, isn’t it?

The pressure of being a clown of this stature is that people expect greatness every night… the bar is ridiculously high and for that reason it would be fascinating to see an unpolished work-in-progress show… Again, in a tent!

And, as the sold out evening crowd settled into their seats, the lights went down and our clown for the evening appeared on stage wearing a vintage suit and that classic ‘dishevelled-Jack-Nicholson’/’here-we-go-again’ look plastered across his face. This was to be a work-in-progress like no other and it totally lived up to that billing.

Jack did not miss a beat and his was a performance better than most finished shows… no reliance on notes, no stammers, no dead ends. Every punchline hit, every routine flowed. This is what being a professional clown is all about.

His pacing is beat-perfect and when you couple the quantity of quality routines that he has in his back pocket with a stage craft honed over decades you can’t help but marvel at his performance.

I love seeing legendary clowns in smaller venues and this will be a show that I remember for a long time. I’m sure that he will polish this routine until he can see his face in it and then announce a tour that will deservedly sell out. It was a pleasure to watch this clown work.

Clown Stars: (-unrated-)

@Assembly George Square Gardens – Edinburgh