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I thought I’d limber up for this year’s standup onslaught in Edinburgh by going to see a play about stand up at the Traverse. Donald Robertson Is Not A Stand Up Comedian, by Gary McNair, is not strictly or entirely about stand up, but it is an intriguing take on the stand up life and the way it can help people deal with real life offstage.
Writer McNair is also the main performer. The show is set in front of the classic comedy club brick wall. As veteran Andy De La Tour once observed, only stand ups and people facing firing squads tend to stand in front of brick walls. The comparison is fair. Comedy is about dying too if you don't deliver.
In McNair’s play death is also a theme. “Kill or be killed” is the advice he offers to a boy called Donald who is being bullied at school. Could a pithy, potty-mouthed put-down be the way of getting the better of the people picking on him. Could stand up be a way for Donald to learn to stand up for himself?
Despite his resemblance to Micky Flanagan in the cheeky chappy picture above, McNair is not a stand up, but he has clearly done his research. The first section of the show is a deconstruction of various comedy tropes, as he explains crowd work, does a few observational one-liners and shows us how banter is rarely as spontaneous as it appears. As it happens he was just talking about warming up the crowd when the fire alarm went off and we were temporarily evacuated*. As he jokes, timing is indeed everything in comedy. There are some good gags here too, though this is very much a dramatic theatre piece rather than a comedy.
McNair cleverly uses the techniques and tools in the comedian’s armoury to explore the wider themes of coping in society. How do you choose to deal with the world? Run, fight or make your enemies laugh? Donald Robertson... may not be the funniest show on the Fringe and there have been better shows about the nature of stand up – Trevor Griffiths’ Comedians, obviously – but for anyone in Edinburgh who has more than the briefest interest in the mechanics and philosophy of humour it is well worth taking a detour away from the clubs and into the theatre for this.
*I don't know if McNair knows, but this actually happened at Suzi Ruffell's gig earlier this week. Life imitating art imitating life and all that...
