David Quirk: Shaking Hands With Danger

David Quirk’s second Fringe hour might be the most heartbreakingly relatable exploration of love in the whole comedy programme. Ostensibly centred around one man’s wandering penis, the real impact here is found in the Australian's devastating portrayal of the contentment of adoring another person and the tragedy of feeling that fade. Quirk is captivating, an assured storyteller who bravely pushes sombre moments far beyond the audience’s comfort level in order to flesh out this gut-wrenching material.

But he’s also a self-conscious standup who refers explicitly and regularly to his lack of jokes. We hear that he even tells the doctor examining his dick that he doesn’t do punchlines, he’s more of an anecdote guy. Quirk is clearly aware that while he’s taking the audience to a vulnerable place, he isn’t quite relieving them with big enough laughs to compensate.

He exhausts the crowd by absorbing them in darkness, then tries to address the imbalance with stories about ejaculate, his penis, sex, his penis again. While the dick jokes are fine, they aren’t enough – but they aren’t the problem and neither is his lack of traditional setup-punchline jokes. Rather, the intensity of the piece is overwhelming and the level of humour doesn’t quite gel with the emotional ambition. However, if Quirk can find some coherence, if he can make the jokes better serve the content rather than simply aim to distract us for a moment, it’s clear that he has the capacity to produce some accomplished work.