Andrew Watts: How to Build a Chap

It takes some considerable cojones to stand before an Edinburgh audience and perform even one non-derisive joke about cricket; Andrew Watts manages several, and, astonishingly, manages to pull them off.

In a way, it's a good representation of Watts' approach to the entire show: the occasional injection of the unexpected keeps it fresh, and he knows precisely how far he can pursue a running gag without testing the audience's patience. That said, Watts' set never suffers from moments of boredom: he produces a tightly-crafted hour of comedy, in large part due to a strict adherence to his chosen theme.

Following up his successful Fringe run with Feminism for Chaps, How to Build a Chap tackles the mysteries and discontents of fatherhood. Watts approaches the subject with a gratifyingly self-aware bent. Given that reflecting on how to raise his child inevitably means reconsidering his own father, Watts declares upfront that the spectacle of a male comedian working through their daddy issues is not exactly unheard of at the Fringe, before taking generally effective steps to subvert the cliché.

Elsewhere though, Watts' material strays into reliable but predictable territory. Almost every comic who has produced progeny will employ them as comedy fodder sooner or later, and as a result, many of the jokes—the sheer exhaustion of parenting, the indecipherability of children's logic—are hardly groundbreaking. But there are still plenty of laughs to be had, and Watts is careful never to exploit his offspring, always preferring to turn his well-phrased mockery on himself.