Stephen Buchanan: Baby Dove

• Brian Donaldson
• 14 August 2019

This article is from 2019

credit: Steve Ullathorne

Easy-going hour with a funny man whose heart is firmly in the right place

Stephen Buchanan's Baby Dove is the kind of show that those alt-right comedians and commentators will be falling over themselves to condemn. One of them even makes an appearance during this hour in the shape of Buchanan's miserable and bigoted neighbour. She hates the fact that the comic has allowed a Vietnamese refugee fleeing from persecution in his country to stay in a Glasgow home. Full disclosure at this point: it's only partly Buchanan's home as this 27-year-old 'manchild' continues living there with his big-hearted social worker mother who was the one that made the decision to welcome in this lad they now call Dove.

Showing his wholehearted contempt for the likes of Tommy Robinson and his witless gang, Buchanan also has little truck with people chatting in the front row and eventually they take his hints and head for the exit. It could well be that they were in no fit state to appreciate what was going on in front of them, but the easy-going charm of Buchanan's stand-up was not lost on the rest of an appreciative crowd. Arguably, he perhaps crammed in a few too many call-backs, but amusing highlights over the hour included his self-deprecating analysis of himself as a short Scottish man, his career in the Co-op, and how you go about explaining the annual ritual of Halloween to a complete outsider.

Pleasance Courtyard, until 25 Aug (not 14), 8.30pm, £8.50–£10 (£7.50–£9).