Both his previous shows having almost killed him, the bar for success is set low for John Tothill at this year’s fringe. But you wouldn’t bet against this cat with nine lives high-achieving his way to award recognition this year, so confident is his comic voice, so frothy and delightful the hour we spend in his company. Rare is the standup with nary a grump, not a whisper of self-importance nor a scintilla of cynicism – just effervescent joy taken in our company, the world and so many wonderful things in it.
And erudition, too, and surprising ideas to undergird the giddy comedy. An act much given to sweeping historico-cultural theses attends in This Must Be Heaven to gluttony, its distinction from greed, and how it challenges the individualism of our age. Tothill’s case study is the Georgian-era guzzler Edward Dando, who ate oysters by the barrowload and refused to pay for them. What a hero, argues our host – at least once he’s dispensed all the absolutely essential gossip that forms the first third of the show.
