Jason Cook: Broken
Jason Cook returns to the Fringe with an optimistic show that explores ill health and personal foibles
100487 original
The Very Best of the Edinburgh Festivals 2024
Review: Assembly Hall
Review: Orchestra of Sound
Review: After the Silence
Published 03 Aug 2014
A master of intertwining the heart strings with the funny bone, with shows about his late father's ill health and his own mortality, Geordie Jason Cook returns to the Fringe this year hto talk about a calamity all of his own making. Cook's sitcom Hebburn is both the reason he has been away from the Fringe for a while and the reason for his latest travails. Lack of sleep, a heart condition and a good old-fashioned breakdown all result from a punishing schedule.
This is no industry odyssey though, as Hebburn is just one of a number of things that have "broken" him. Cook's definition of damage includes being cut down to size by his wife and being inexplicably spurned by his daughter. But unlike previous shows, this one begins, middles and ends happily.
"So regional, so lazy, so racist" is how Cook himself characterises his opening banter. But, in truth, it's so joyous and affectionate too. Meanwhile, his ability to cope with the most bizarre, cackling laughter from one audience member tonight was truly admirable and further helped him earn his spurs for inclusiveness.
Cook is always looking on the bright side. A deconstruction of the various therapists he has to coax him away from his stress-inducing habits defines this; he chooses the therapist who can play a joke on him before he can play one on them.
His closing family holiday routine picks up from a slight lull and wraps up the inherent tension between attempted relaxation and his pursuit of a laugh. Long may he follow that quest.