Josh Widdicombe: Incidentally...

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At a Fringe awash with high-concept standup, it's rare to find a comedian without a self-conscious gimmick. Yet that is what Josh Widdicombe is – a performer unburdened with any stylistic concern other than being funny. This is a braver move than some might give him credit for.

Widdicombe practises observational comedy of the conventional, apparently unremarkable sort; early in the show, he admits that boundary-breaking satire is not his strong suit. His preferred subjects—Super Noodles, annoying flatmates and other perils of young bachelorhood—are domestic, familiar, but rarely tedious. In fact, it is this familiarity which serves as foundation for the warm relationship Widdicombe forges with his audience after only minutes on stage.

His main tactic is baffled overreaction to life's mundanity—again, not exactly unknown in mainstream standup—but when his observations are rooted in such basic shared human experience, the tactic works more often than not. Such an approach could but called unambitious, but not ineffective.

However, as relatable as it is, Widdicombe's defiantly lightweight material unfortunately leaves the performance feeling sparse and unsatisfying as a whole. Though he's not the fastest-talking comedian in the world, the show moves along at a fair clip, only slowed down by some uncertain audience interaction. But chatting with the front row is always a gamble, and Widdicombe should be given credit for never serving up these innocent bystanders as sacrificial lambs of comedy. There is no shortage of comedians who could learn from that example.