John-Luke Roberts Distracts You From A Murder

How many of us would go to a public beheading if we had the opportunity? There are few taboos that standup comedy hasn’t broken in the last century, yet on-stage murder appears to be one of them. Although Tommy Cooper and Eric Morecambe very sadly died during or directly after their final performances, this had not been advertised in the programme.

As you’ve probably guessed, John-Luke Roberts's show title is a conceit rather than the harbinger of a new age of snuff comedy. Nevertheless it is one of the most interesting conceits of the festival: the jokes are there to distract you from the horrific crime Roberts plans to commit. This isn’t the standup Edinburgh standard of taking your 20-minute club show and extending it to 50 minutes. This is an award-baiting show that proves that Roberts, already a BBC comedy writer in residence, can more than hold his own as a performer.

As well as pretending to kill a co-star, Roberts fits in a lot of stylistically diverse material. The stream of devastating one-liners is broken up by physical comedy, video footage and audience harassment.

A small criticism is that at times he strays too far from his concept in order to show off his full range. Some of his material doesn’t seem thematically consistent and even though he is supposedly diverting our attention, it seems a shame that this detracts from the show's otherwise impressive coherence.

Still, this is a compelling idea, expertly realised, and—for most, at least—much more enjoyable than watching a real killing.