James Sherwood: I Fed My Best Friend Her Favourite Cow

To quote the big man—Socrates that is, not Paul Daniels—"the unexamined life is not worth living." James Sherwood takes the central tenet of ancient Greek philosophy to heart in this enjoyable, if rather uneven, show about the difference between good people and bad, played out in the cramped setting of the Gilded Balloon's aptly named Wee Room.

Sherwood’s description of himself as "like Clement Freud after a decaf Horlicks" isn’t far off the mark: hirsute, prolix, a little too, er, big-boned for his natty suit, the English comic cuts an affable character from the off.

Which is just as well, as his hour doesn’t exactly begin at lightning speed. There are a few too many unpolished one-liners, while a more complex gag about a semaphoring table tennis player is markedly less interesting than it sounds.

Luckily Sherwood, a Fringe veteran, wants for neither nous nor charm, and the show quickly gets back on track. There’s a selection of keyboard-backed interrogations on the good life as well as some audience-assisted riffs on what supposedly makes him an awful person: a dislike of Bob Dylan, protest marchers and bicycles (no prizes for guessing Sherwood’s day job – a Radio 4 writer).   

The central conceit is a little thin but Sherwood has an easy conversational style and enough well-crafted gags to keep the laughs ticking over right up to the wonderfully overblown bombastic musical finale.