Review: Alex Kealy: The Fear

Alex Kealy is well known and loved for his clever one-liners, but in The Fear he’s attempting to reveal more of himself than he has before.

Acknowledging that forming a connection with the audience is an important ingredient in comedy, he sprinkles the show with personal nuggets, most notably to do with his recent nuptials. From anecdotes and observations about the proposal to the wedding itself, and the couple’s unconventional sleeping arrangements, it’s pleasant, with a few quality gags.

The real protein exists in references to his own upbringing, with a hint that, while his parents aren’t to blame for his anxiety, they do deserve an executive credit. Thanks to their work abroad, he had to go to boarding school from a young age, and it would be more satisfying to hear him deploy his evident intellect to investigate the realities and impact of this (particularly when the zeitgeist is focused more on calling out educational privilege than exploring the emotional deprivation that so often accompanies it).

Kealy comes armed with some fantastic jokes and analogies, most notably parallels between religion and Rick and Morty, a fresh take on Toblerone and what happens when you lose your voice as a maths tutor.