Carl Donnelly: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Carl Donnelly?

115270 original

After receiving a surprise nomination for the Best Newcomer award at last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Carl Donnelly returns to the Fringe with another hour of rambling, directionless but ultimately very enjoyable standup. Incorporating tales of domestic life and what it means to finally grow up, this is an apt follow-up to 2009’s well-received debut.

What makes Donnelly such an accomplished and compelling performer is not his pre-planning, organisation or precision, all of which are absent; indeed, he characterises his show as one that begins with “a bit of a preamble, then starts weak and peters out from there.” Instead, it is the matey rapport he builds up with members of the front row. This is, after all, a comic who spends no less than 20 minutes bantering with the audience before realising that he’d better start the gig. It’s a messy but thoroughly enjoyable way to kick off the hour.

One thing Donnelly doesn’t do is engage with anything big or meaningful. There’s a (very) loose thematic strand running through the show, whereby he briefly considers the trappings of fame and his almost unique unsuitability for it. This, though, is pretty much just for show: How Do You Solve A Problem? is really just a collection of silly anecdotes told with a boyish enthusiasm that one can’t help but enjoy.

As a purveyor of good old-fashioned standup fun, Carl Donnelly is one of the Fringe’s most bankable young comics.