Xavier Toby: Binge Thinking

Binge Thinking is a show rather contentiously sold as involving thought; Xavier Toby, though easy-going and engaging company, scrapes the barrel of comic topics in his issue-based set. The trained engineer allegedly turned to standup in order to place filthy gags on the same plain as earnest opinions on the economy. Sadly they both feel flat and hardly the result of studied insight. 

 The show’s structure is reasonably original. Toby recreates a dinner party at which he disagrees with everyone present by animating the guests with booze bottles. But though he labours them with surreally amusing voices, there’s no lazier reductio ad absurdum than rendering your opponent a loose bag of wine. 

The self-consciously silly shtick would be forgiveable if Toby didn’t counter-argue their conservative views on gay marriage and China by drawing patronising comparisons to the inherently low-brow; David Beckham, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez films. Only his analogy of the environment as a rock star’s hotel room is compelling, and with an audience of liberal Fringe-goers spilling money on an unknown Aussie, he’s mostly preaching to the converted. 

Moreover, snarky digs at physical appearance and stupidity—Kardashians and too tight leggings—are unconvincing from the otherwise likeable Toby. He appears older than this adolescent approach to comedy suggests. Perhaps his years of shagging backpackers in eight-bed hostel dorms have aged him prematurely. It certainly serves as withered material and undermines a show that feels it should be something else given its title.