Ed Night: Anthem for Doomed Youth

• Murray Robertson
• 8 August 2017

This article is from 2017

A mix of the high and (very) lowbrow in this impressive full debut

Streatham lad Ed Night is wise well beyond his years. The son of comedian and broadcaster Kevin Day, he appears to have absorbed much of his father's more left-leaning political opinions and his hour is a passionately thoughtful and often hilarious one.

Night has some cracking stories up his sleeve and sells them effortlessly with a confident and verbose delivery. When he dips into political territory, the jokes sometimes take a back seat, particularly during a short section on the awful story surrounding the death of baby Charlie Gard. Night explains how no one came through that episode very well at all and its inclusion here serves only to dampen the atmosphere. But he's a strong enough performer to quickly bring his audience back onside.

His show is top and tail heavy with its broadest humour and there's an interesting contrast between his more highbrow material (particularly observations on gentrification, some of which are a little too narrowly focused on south London) with jokes about being fingered up the bum. This is a tremendously assured hour with lots to think about and much to laugh at. Ed Night has a very exciting future ahead of him.

Pleasance Courtyard, until 28 Aug (not 14), 8.30pm, £7.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£8.50).