Now, this felt like a traditional Fringe experience – heading to one of the classic comedy venues (The Stand) after a few excellent drinks to see an Icelandic cartoonist who mostly lives in Berlin and enjoys a somewhat dark sense of humour!

We’ve had fantastic shows from Icelandic clowns in the past, but dark satirical cartoonists were a new one for all of us. The only person who seemed to have less of an idea of how this particular show might go was, in fact, the man on stage – Hugleikur Dagsson (Hook-leigh-er Dak-shun… we asked three people, and they all said something different, so I really hope this is right!).

Stand 6 is actually a really sweet venue; it has a small cinema vibe and looks pretty cool when bathed in the blue lighting effects it was sporting for this evening’s show. Our clown for the evening bounded on stage wearing a cap with his name on it and a sweatshirt of his own design (three cats on a sofa all telling you to fuck off… sounds about right).

The first thing that strikes you about this clown is just how much fun he seems to be having on stage. His energy shifts from classic deadpan to literally corpsing at the silliness of some of his own gags – it’s actually quite infectious.

From his obsession with Gene Hackman to material confusing “baby coughing” with “baby coffin” and one truly wonderful skit on mansplaining, this was an unexpectedly enjoyable show. His topics can get a little dark and may not suit everyone, but we were thoroughly on board and even bought his book, which he very kindly signed for us (see below).

You can find out more about his past work and future shows here

Clown Stars: * * * *

@The Stand, Edinburgh