Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016 REVIEW – Des Bishop “Grey Matters” ****

Following the extremely successful sell-out show ‘Made in China’ in 2014, Des Bishop returns to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016 with his eagerly awaited new show ‘Grey Matters’.

We learn that Des Bishop lived for a time in Flushing in New York before being exiled to Ireland at the age of 14 (because of alcohol?). Des is a handsome man who is just on the wrong side of 40 – he has hair, but it has greyed and he has now embraced the grey.

On stage for seconds he quickly builds a rapport with the audience. He captures the angst of being a teenage in Ireland in the late ’80s and early ‘90s. It was an era without mobile phones, Snapchat or Facebook. Phones were landlines but just called phones. There was no other concept of a phone. If you were lucky enough to meet and ‘shift’ at the local disco you asked the girl for her number – but it was really her dad’s number. Des captures the awkwardness of it all – phone restrictions, the cost of communications and the eventual death of privacy. Are our children better off gawking into devices or getting out and “shock horror” playing in the street or park?

While observing the ‘best parent ever’ approach of his family and friends, Des reflects on the fact that he has no children and while there is regret (perhaps) – there are comic benefits of guerilla warfare on parents by bringing out the worst in their kids.

The show flows from childhood to manhood, the challenges of sexual performance and the inevitable event when “Seamus” does not get up to perform. Des likes sex and as the show is drawing to a close he takes us on a sometimes cringe-worthy journey through his sexual encounters and a range of taboo subjects. By talking about it he urges us to talk about it.

Grey Matters is brilliant and very funny – and an hour in the company of Des Bishop passes all too quickly.

Des Bishop at The Pleasance Dome Tickets here.