Erich McElroy’s (US) Electile Dysfunction

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Less than a week into its run, Erich McElroy's free show is attracting larger audiences than his modest room can accommodate. In the queue before this afternoon's performance, a hopeful punter attributes Electile Dysfunction's unexpected popularity to a perceived deficit in US comics addressing their country's politics at the Fringe. Yes, the upcoming election is being touched upon by acts of all nationalities but, in McElroy's own words, it's he who has "the stars, the stripes and the spunk to explain" the subject to us.

Anyone expecting the comic to expertly "translate the jacked up monster truck that is the US presidential election" will surely be disappointed by how run of the mill most of his commentary is. He complains that, despite having lived in the UK for 16 years, he's still treated as an ambassador for a country he has decreasing involvement with, yet here he has no problem fraudulently presenting himself as an authority on its current affairs.

What he offers is mostly a feeble take on Donald Trump's very clearly apparent inadequacies. Valid points are raised, but they're mostly superficial in nature. Were McElroy a stronger writer, he might offer insight into how a privileged loose canon achieved even a scrap of mainstream credibility, or address the issue of money and social class remaining requisites for power in America, a problem of which Hilary Clinton's success is no less symptomatic.