As if we didn’t know to expect old-fashioned from Bobby Davro, the three shows preceding his, in his niche fringe venue, are tributes to Elvis, Sinatra and Roy Orbison. His show is called Everything Is Funny … If You Can Laugh at It: no one can accuse Davro of false advertising. And yet, and yet – it’s always intriguing when these end-of-the-pier comics tip up to try their hand at the fringe, as Jim Davidson, Michael Barrymore, Jim Bowen and others have in recent years. Will they trim their sails to suit the festival wind? Or ply the same unreconstructed gags, and to hell with the context?
Reader, Bobby Davro takes the latter route. Not that he doesn’t take context into account, mind you: he opens with a performance of Scotland’s de facto national anthem, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers, inviting us all to sing “Bobby Davro” instead of “da-da da da”. Could there be a better opening to a comedy show? But with the welcome currents of modern comedy away from old-school sexism and racism, Davro makes no compromise – save for the trigger warning he issues at the start, telling snowflakes to stay away.
