Edinburgh Festival Fringe Review – Kevin Day ***

Watching Kevin Day perform on stage at Edinburgh’s Gilded Balloon, it’s hard to believe the London based comedian was once a member of the National Front. Day was still an impressionable teenager at the time but when a black teenager who was a close friend of Day’s died in police custody, it made the young man change his views on life.

Now edging closer to 50 years old, Day shared some of those views with his audience, some of whom lapped it up, others seemingly unsure. Day began his show by saying it would be a metaphor of the Scottish Referendum but this was what passes as satire these days. Day is perhaps better known as a writer of satire, being the programme associate for the BBC’s long-running topical news quiz Have I Got News For You for several years. He is adept at the stand-up routine although Friday evening’s performance seemed strangely edgy. I overheard Day in the bar beforehand telling a couple of people that he was hoping for a better night than last night when he thought ‘a lot of people must have thought they were coming to see Tim Vine’. Perhaps this explained why he looked a tad nervous on stage which seemed strange for a man with his wealth of experience.

Some of Day’s humour is witty rather than outright hysterical and some of his stories clearly struck a chord with some of the audience. However, his act was more likely to induce a light chuckle than raucous laughter which is what most of the people who went to see him would have expected.  Thoughtful humour rather than cutting edge.

A pleasant enough show without your sides being in any danger of splitting.

Tickets available here