Jon Bennett: My Dad's Deaths

At the beginning of an appealing variation on the emotionally weighty “Dead Dad” genre of standup that's proved so popular at recent Fringes, Jon Bennett smilingly disclaims that his hour contains feelings of “shame, fear and sadness”. Not least because he created the Pretending Things Are a Cock show and internet meme, the Australian had a rather awkward relationship with his father, beginning on the stormy night of his birth.

But this is not a reflection on a father's passing, for Bennett Snr was a born survivor, blessed with the tremendous fortune to overcome a staggering series of life-threatening injuries, heart attacks, shark attacks and once, quite memorably, being shot. A stern but melodramatic man who fulfilled an imposing number of roles in Bennett's childhood (including, though not limited to being his school teacher) his love of Bush poetry was matched only by his disdain for jokes. Against this formidable background of parental disapproval, Bennett entertainingly relates the various ways in which his father shaped his character. He recreates a school humiliation with some break-dancing volunteers, renders his misguided sexual initiation in verse and shares a clip of his teenage standup, ripping the piss out of his old man, predictably enough.

Bennett occasionally diverts into an easy but amusing showcase of inane, poorly spelt Facebook updates, very much in the style of Adam Buxton's BUG. But generally, he maintains a loose but coherent, carefully paced narrative, bringing it to a satisfying conclusion while keeping it funny, reasonably light and mocking of manipulative storytelling convention.