Edinburgh Fringe Review: Booby-trap audience meant Carl Donnelly’s show didn’t go Strictly to plan… but it was brilliant

IN an interview with The Sunday Post ahead of the Edinburgh Fringe, Carl Donnelly said that no two shows were ever the same.

Boy, did this one prove that to be the case!

While Donnelly may well hope the rest of his Fringe run is a little less hectic than this mad Tuesday night, it proved to be a hilarious hour where the comic used every ounce of his decade of Fringe experience to keep himself from becoming the hapless supply teacher in an unruly classroom.

Taking place in The Counting House’s ballroom, Strictly Carl Donnelly is a free Fringe show, and this particular edition came with an audience the London-born comic reckoned was a ‘booby-trap’.

There was one bold punter deciding to take matters into his own hands regarding a noisy air con unit right in the middle of the show – walking out, finding someone official, getting it turned off and the room becoming a furnace as a result.

That’s not to mention the men claiming to be triplets when they very clearly were not, and a group who slipped into the room in bizarre fashion (late) and then left in dribs and drabs to the bar, toilet or both throughout the show.

The audience threatened to become the stars of the show but Donnelly was excellent in dealing with it all, even if his train of thought was delayed more often than ScotRail’s finest.

It kept him at the top of his game, and he admitted he was loving the challenge.

Carl Donnelly’s switching the top deck of a bus for a ballroom at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe

This is Donnelly’s tenth year at the Fringe. Unlike previous years, there was no over-arching theme and in the prepared segments he had he touched on his decade of coming to Edinburgh, stag dos, gentrification and his love of Netflix series Queer Eye.

Most entertaining though, were the tangents spawned by the interruptions and Donnelly’s own urge to share whatever is on his mind at that moment.

Verdict: ★★★★

While this was hardly a regular show, a strong routine and passionate performer were enough to give an indication that this is one worth checking out on a less boisterous day! Donnelly is an extremely likeable performer and compelling storyteller.