The “dead dad show” is a fringe comedy staple. But what about the dead not-quite-an-uncle show? Ben Target is a comedian who, by his own account, never quite delivered on the promise identified by his best fringe newcomer nomination more than a decade ago. Well, he delivers something very lovely here, with an autobiographical hour about the time he spent as end-of-life carer for his adopted uncle, a maverick live-in colleague of his grandparents and “the only adult with whom [Target] ever felt safe”.
The show flits between timelines to recount Target’s relationship with Lorenzo, a fugitive from a rackety Hong Kong upbringing, later expelled from Cuba by Fidel Castro himself – for being too cheeky, some say, or for being a spy. In a childhood not overflowing with affection, Lorenzo was Target’s refuge, a surrogate dad who preferred silly to serious and freedom to convention. Fifteen years on, Target finds himself sole carer to his former mentor: bathing him, giving him morphine and cleaning up his mess – before watching his own life swirl down the plughole with all the Dettol, blood and poo.
