Kai Humphries: Bare-Faced Cheek

“Was it alright?” Kai Humphries asks his audience with a nervous look on his face, after an hour of fumbling comedic intercourse. It’s an ironic climax given that the young Geordie—who you’ll probably recognise from large posters plastered around Edinburgh displaying his arse-naked, tattooed body—is so given to puns of a smutty bent.

If he can squeeze in another wank joke—about wanking to Eurotrash, “danger wanking,” or wanking over red peppers (that’s an especially weird one)—well he just wanking well will. It’s his favourite subject, second only to the exploits of his brother, a fun-loving stoner who attempts to thwart some pocket-dipping townies by carrying a dog shit in a crisp packet, and who is tricked into confessing his infidelities to his girlfriend after she claims, as an April fool, to have caught an STD. It’s a shame it’s not his brother that’s on the mic – he sounds like a riot.

Humphries is an upbeat and likeable chap, and he does well to make a very small crowd feel relaxed and welcome throughout what could have been an awkward hour. But his punch lines are hackneyed, and while he ad-libs pretty well, you have to ask questions of a standup who’s beaten to the best joke of his own show by an audience member. “Does Julie talk in her sleep Mark?” Humphries quizzes a couple from Leeds who he’s been bantering with throughout the show. “Julie does,” replies Mark quick as a flash, before pointing to his wife, “Jean doesn’t.”