When Michael McIntyre came to Edinburgh as part of his Comedy Road show nothing could have prepared us for Kevin Bridges. The acts before him where good and well meaning, but as far as headline acts went Bridges offered something better that night and I remember calling and texting everyone I knew to get them to watch him on I-Player.
So when I heard he was going to be at the Fringe I knew I wanted to see him. The only issue I had pre-show was that his set I had seen on BBC had been so well written and tight I wasn’t sure he was going to be able to follow it as brilliantly as that. And as a pretty new comic on the scene was he going to have the material to make a Fringe show worthy of the sell-out crowd am surrounded by.
I missed the start of the show due to being all the way over by the Royal Mile but was told, quite helpfully, the funniest bit was at the start, so good times ahead. The room was packed and there seemed to be a good cross section here (though a little more middle aged tonight than I would have thought) and Kevin seems to be in real control of the crowd.
He has was about him that is one part old school comic and two parts Kevin Bridges a lot of his punch lines or monologues are always followed by this cheeky smile and nudge or sorts. Already in the first five minutes of the show he has already covered, how Scotland is the number 1 for a variety of negative things (his suicide bit is choice), fat people, and going to the public pool in which he says there are three types of people who use the public pool during the day.
It’s hard to fault Kevin because his set is perfection he has managed to marry the form of a joke telling stand up with monologues that are air tight.
*Spoiller Alert*
His whole show has a flow that doesn’t seem to stop, the only time his flow was lost was when some people in the the audience had tried to have some odd banter with him, this was perhaps his only trip in his show. He works so well in telling the audience the stories or the well constructed jokes but he wasn’t that well at bantering with the audience in the same was as Daniel Sloss, Tom Bell, or Matt Kirshen. It could have just been that one night but once he pulled back from the audience he was back on form.
Kevin has one of the greatest observational comedic timings I have seen at this festival . The way he is able to tell the story is key to his act, he brings you in and makes out like your in a bar and he telling you about his day. Kevin Bridges is like your best friend on stage, the one that tells you the stories and you find him mesmerising because he fits so much into his set. This show has been selling out most of its nights but if you can get to see this show you should, be worth it more than gold diamands, or chips with all the fixings.
’…well, only thing I can say is this show will blow your mind, Kevin Bridges is here to stay’ ****Four Stars
