He may be making his 10th Edinburgh appearance, but you can’t accuse Ivo Graham of coasting. He’s got three separate shows at this year’s festival, and the main one, Organised Fun, takes his standup in a new direction – at the behest of his infant daughter, he explains. I respect the old dog’s openness to new tricks, but regret to report that, in this instance, it is not rewarded.
What we usually get from the 33-year-old is the burbling comedy of posh English illness-at-ease. Last year’s show added a new layer of – well, not gravitas exactly, but a little hard-knocks grit in the gilded Old Etonian machine. But if you thought Graham might be growing up, Organised Fun has news for you. This is a wholly inconsequential hour, which begins with standup below Graham’s usual standard, and ends with a participatory gameshow below the standard of other comics who do that sort of thing much better.
