Ed Gamble
(Picture: Metro)Ed Gamble’s career is very much in the ascendant right now. As well as opening his London run last night he also appeared on BBC Two as one of the judges on Great British Menu and is soon due to show off his own culinary skills on C4’s Celebrity Bake-Off. His stage appearance was a chance to remind fans that he has platefuls of stand-up talent too.
Anyone expecting a foodie theme to his set, however, might have felt a little short-changed. Instead Gamble delivered a mostly strong sequence of stories on subjects as diverse as guesting at the notoriously hard-rocking Download Festival and how ten-pin bowling has changed during Covid.
If his material did not particularly hang together thematically, Gamble sold each routine with his punchy, incredulous, underdog persona. He is at his funniest when he is sending up his attempts to be a better person, failing miserably at karaoke or unable to get a six pack at the gym.
He would ideally like to be hipper yet concedes that however many tattoos he gets he will always resemble a “slightly cool vicar”. By his own admission he is nowhere near as edgy as someone like Jimmy Carr, a theory confirmed to him when one of his jokes was retweeted by the CBeebies Twitter account.
While the show is called Electric it occasionally lacks spark, but fully ignites when he gets personal and talks about his wedding that was repeatedly postponed during the pandemic. When they finally confirmed a date they decided to avoid catching Covid by having a private two person hen do. Needless to say it did not go to plan.
Gamble is also known for his Off Menu podcast with James Acaster and teaming up with Acaster seems to have rubbed off on him. He has a similar way of expressing his frustrations, getting worked up into a veritable lather over the most trivial incidents, such as not being able to buy penis-shaped straws in packets of less than 40.
Those with an appetite for some eating-related riffs eventually get their wish as Gamble constructs an elaborate anecdote about his love of budget hotel breakfasts. It is the stand-out section as he works his way through the horrors he has encountered under those shiny silver domes.
It is a memorable end which makes one wonder if perhaps he should have built the entire set around his quest for the perfect pastry. Instead the rest of Electric is reliable and relatable, merely missing that special ingredient. You can bet on Gamble to deliver laughs but he has not yet found the recipe for superstardom.
