Phil Wang: Anti-Hero

Graduation to a long Fringe career and telly ubiquity awaits Phil Wang, a two-time major student comedian of the year award winner with a strong hint about him of that McIntyre-esque middle-of-the-road capacity to get the whole family laughing without frightening the horses (your gran) too much.

Making his Fringe debut with Anti-Hero, the calmly-spoken 24-year-old is already a safer ticket than many a more seasoned standup. His writing has some way to go – more smartly-smutty stuff akin to the “dicks, let’s discuss” bit than the filler-quality routine on comedy characters invented to sell to Channel 4, please Phil. But if he’s well-endowed with any one thing it’s that natural skill for making a nuance, expression, tone of voice or turn of phrase the funny part, even if the joke as written bombs a bit.

British comedy is hardly under-stocked with nerdy guys confessing to wanking too much, but Wang does pervy with a naïve twist, such as when he reads out a series of his own increasingly desperate missed connection notices, culminating brilliantly with one addressed to a lady in the shower.

He finds good everyday humour in his own relatively plain biography, from explaining his curious Lloyd Grossman-esque Transatlantic accent to revealing the at times frustrating healthiness of his relationship with his parents – a refreshingly frank contrast to the larger-than-life personas fabricated by many comics. It’s tempting to award him a bonus star just for the complimentary “Wang” badge you get on the way out.