Daniel Simonsen - Champions

Reports of a ‘Scandi invasion’ of the Fringe this year have clearly caught a few imaginations, as the turn-out for this young Norwegian standup almost fills his small space at the Pleasance on a drizzly Sunday evening. At first he doesn’t even reward us with his physical presence. Daniel Simonsen delivers the first five minutes of the set standing behind the curtain, painting increasingly bizarre pictures of what he's doing: now his foot is in his mouth, now the mic, now the entire mic stand.

The slightly disturbing, surreal imagery might fool you into thinking we’re in Dutch absurdist Hans Teeuwen’s territory, but the majority of this set is more traditional, observational stand-up. What makes it so compelling is the genuinely alienated, outsider angle that Simonsen delivers it from.

Much of the set is given over to his intense social anxieties, but where other comics might smile and cajole us into agreeing with their observations, Simonsen seems wide-eyed with alarm at their implications. When he apparently tries to interact with the audience, he asks us purposefully daft questions that draw a blank, milking laughs from the discomfort of the situation.

People coming for gags won’t be disappointed: there’s plenty of very strong material here, as Simonsen riffs on his irrational reaction to gay men, or imagines what Batman and Bane would be like at a dinner party, or explains what he means by “reverse paedophilia.” But there’s also a sharp edge to the style that, irrespective of any Scandinavian talent wave, marks out Simonsen as one to watch.