Frank Skinner is the biggest comedian doing a full run at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. So it is only fair that we open our comedy coverage with a review of his new show. As the title 30 Years of Dirt hints, there won’t be too many spoilers here as some of his finest quips are so ribald they are unprintable.
Ribald, but immaculately constructed. A routine about Ronaldo’s six-pack is both puerile and poetic. As Skinner readily admits, he tries to write clean material only for knob gags to keep poking their way in. A sophisticated literary side does poke through too though. He can slide seamlessly from seediness to an Emily Brontë reference.
He might be 66, but Skinner’s crowdwork is as sharp as ever. He eased in by sparring with a front row football fan, repeatedly returning to him as if he was getting pleasure from scratching an itch. Perhaps unsurprisingly for the Three Lions star, soccer as well as lewdness was a leitmotif. When talking about digressing he described it beautifully as “taking the ball to the corner flag”.
While his West Midlands delivery is less extravagant, he can spool out a yarn every bit as entertainingly as prime-era Billy Connolly. One stand-out story involved receiving his MBE from the Princess Royal and boasted a peerless darts joke. Further topics ranged from an awkward encounter with Sir Tim Rice to proposing to his partner and getting rejected.
Discussing the current state of humour and cancel culture he noted sagely that things are more nuanced than when he won the Perrier Award here 32 years ago. As for people being offended by him though, he feels that audiences should know what to expect by now: “if you’re vegan don’t go to the butchers.”
His routines don’t always link, but Skinner is such an engaging talker you barely spot the joins. And actually he has mellowed slightly. I watched an old Skinner set recently and his riff about sex at this Fringe is much more restrained than one he did about a similar sex act when he had a fringe of his own.
He suggested onstage that perhaps some audience members would like his set to go down really badly so that they have an anecdote to tell their friends at work. No chance. Anyone hoping for that would have left this virtuoso display of vulgarity empty-handed.
