Matt Okine: Being Black & Chicken & Sh#%t

Last year's winner of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival newcomer award, Matt Okine brings an Edinburgh Fringe debut that is personable and puts an eloquent spin on familiar tropes.

A trip to Ghana to see extended family provides a loose backdrop to the Australian's club material. He sets up a gentle friction between first and third world problems, allowing him to ponder the utility of the see-through toaster, among other Western wonders. Other comparatives include the safety record of Ethiopian airlines, a well researched routine that flies. Some segments travel less well, with his self-fellatio bit a particular example of a tenuous segue.

Meanwhile, his climax sees him adopt the now familiar rhetorical rant, tacked on to give almost undue reverse bathos to the preceding material. Much of Okine's material is standard fare – the "where are you really from?" confusion that often faces mixed-race people, food menus with photos on etc. In Okine's hands there is a freshness to it in so much as he is enthused by his material and has avoided the easiest A to B conclusions, without necessarily bringing the most startling insight to the table. A consistent stream of live and TV work seems to flow Okine's way, and it is not hard to see why. Another visit might tell us more about whether the young comic has a distinctive voice in standup as well as the charisma needed for showbiz.