Joe Lycett: Some Lycett Hot

Joe Lycett is ludicrously debonair for his age. The charming 24 year-old is so unthreatening that an attempt to unsettle the audience of his first solo Fringe show with his bisexuality is laughable. The soothing warm atmosphere of Some Lycett Hot means when the standup begins to dictate from his weird written correspondence, it’s scorching comedy.

Lycett in print possesses rattling levels of passive aggression. The disjunction between his polite Brummie lilt and the violent surrealism of his words is jarringly funny. In a letter to a parking warden Lycett claims if he’s obliged to pay the fine a child at his orphanage will die. He messages back users of Grindr, a gay dating website, curt ripostes and increasingly esoteric questions. He bizarrely begins an email to a complaining television viewer “Dear Nick Clegg” and concludes with excessive kisses.

Unfortunately these snippets occupy barely a third of Some Lycett Hot. It’s a show in which Lycett seems still to be testing the water of his comic expertise. He dabbles uncertainly in tepid observational gags about wasps and urinals, and resorts occasionally to a flippant pull-back-and-reveal.

Lycett possesses an effortless onstage presence already but he could be more focused. If he’d printed out his email correspondence and just read it aloud for an hour he’d earn an extra star instantly.