Simon Munnery sings Soren Kierkegaard

Has there ever been a show title that screams ‘Edinburgh Fringe!’ as much as this one? Long-serving standup maverick Simon Munnery is clearly more of an urbane warrior these days, acting in a Harold Pinter play, A Slight Ache, at lunchtimes, then dedicating his standup show to a long-dead Danish philosopher. Well, some of it.

The veteran comic readily admits that the concept of Simon Munnery sings Søren Kierkegaard is a blatant steal from the semi-legendary Leonard Cohen show his old contemporary Arthur Smith debuted at the Fringe back in 2000. That proved to be a cathartic detour for the then-troubled Smith, a radical departure from regular stand up formats, and Munnery clearly revels in the opportunity to grapple with some real intellectual rigour here, while also wading through the splendid grumpiness of Kierkegaard’s journals for good measure.

He doesn’t do a huge amount of singing—and certainly not of Kierkegaard’s less than tuneful greatest hits—but during a revealing Søren section early on there is one long, impressively memorised passage, performed via a sneer-heavy hybrid of Kenneth Williams and Johnny Rotten, which proves surprisingly appropriate. Veering happily off-topic, he ploughs through a lengthy chunk of lyrics from The Jam later on too. The punk is still strong in this one.

Those bits in between his philosophical musings are an uneven mix of rambling anecdotes, random mumblings and a smattering of proper gags. Some of these aural wanderings prove to be inspired, others meander into half-built cul-de-sacs, but it’s all unfailingly fascinating to watch. Another memorable hour for the Munnery annals.