It’s a sign of the times that even the sunniest standups are now delivering sets about their disintegrating mental health. There are cameos in Larry Dean’s new show Fudnut (nominated yesterday for the Dave’s Edinburgh comedy awards) for the hypnotherapist addressing his vape addiction, and the counsellor urging him to “feel his feelings” instead of joking about them. I have some sympathy with her point of view, while acknowledging that this is a fine set from the Glaswegian. The cracks are showing in his cheeky-chappy demeanour – which, if un-ideal for his wellbeing, is encouraging for his standup.
Dean certainly comes across more highly strung than hitherto, as he tells a series of stories branching off from his central tale of being “bum-searched” for drugs in Abu Dhabi airport. We hear about a gig he once performed to a homophobic audience, about his posh lawyer boyfriend, and their breakup – and we hear about Dean’s “best good friend” Paul, whom he turns to for comic support when the Abu Dhabi peril escalates.
Along with some neat gags (the one about anal lube and car parking springs to mind), the 32-year-old’s great skill is to make the audience feel like intimate confidantes. He uses it to generate real comic heat here – helped by a bizarre walkout by an offended couple in the front row. Other standups might falter; Dean uses the incident to unite the room, in hilarity. I may be in the minority in thinking he sometimes goes too far at playing the audience’s best friend. He sets feedback loops of laughter going by laughing along with us – but they can feel artificial, and prevent him going forward with, or deeper into, the material.
It’s an example of the very dissociation under discussion in Fudnut: Dean’s compulsion to keep discomfort at bay by laughing about it. Sometimes – with the brief routine about cuckolding, say – I’d prefer him to linger longer with the discomfort. The show’s emotional big reveal suffers, meanwhile, if you’ve seen Sarah Keyworth’s show elsewhere in town, which addresses the same subject almost identically. But Fudnut remains a strong offering, from a standup profiting as he lets chips appear on the smooth surface of his comedy.
• Larry Dean: Fudnut is at Monkey Barrel Comedy, Edinburgh, until 28 August.
