How does Mat Ewins do it? I didn't have a press ticket for this show and just as it was about to start and my pass still hadn't pinged in I was standing in the street trying to get a phone signal and the security guard asked what I was doing. I explained and he said "why don't you just walk in, tickets are free?". So I hurried in as it started, settled down at the back, sorted my notebook out, got my pencil out and as I looked up Mat Ewins' video screen was running live tweets. The most recent one said: "why didn't he just walk in, the tickets are free?".
So among all of his other multi-media skills Mat Ewins can now add Derren Brown Tribute Act to his CV. Or did I dream it? A Ewins set can certainly mess with your head. He is already so good at piling multi-media gag on top of multi-media gag it is hard to say if this show is his best, but one thing is for sure. On a gags-per-second ratio you won't see anything funnier on the Fringe (small caveat, if helps if you have a childish streak like I do and like to see film of baked beans pouring out of a kitchen tap).
The loosest of premises here is that Ewins is trying to become a social media star and wants to increase his following on TikTok. I'm surprised that he really only has around a thousand followers. His quickfire clips are made for social media. But it's probably nicer to see them onstage onscreen in between Ewins talking about them and talking about how he has attempted to raise his own profile.
As well as a running gag about baked beans being the answer to life's woes, there's an update of a famous Two Ronnies skit as if it was made for social channels. A Ewins AI chatbot offers sarky put-downs while the aforementioned Twitter stream is just close enough to reality to make you scratch your head. As well as a comment about me, there was another about the critic lurking at the back next to me that was deadly accurate. Props to Ewins' tech team who put these out, Ewins surely can't be doing it himself.
There is a Love Island spoof like no other, cartoons get messed with and – send him to the Tower – King Charles gets royally mocked in some tweaked footage. The jokes really do fly thick and fast and both the inventiveness and the hit rate is incredible. There are gags absolutely everywhere. In fact on Ewins' Fringe page this is billed as "flamenco, ventriloquism", which may be the only two art forms you don't see onstage during his happy hour. I wonder if any disgruntled Spanish Nina Conti fans have asked for a refund.
Australian absurdist Sam Campbell won the Edinburgh Comedy Award last year for Best Show with a similar mix of mischief and multi-media. Ewins has a very similar madcap sensibility and has probably been honing his style longer – he picked up a Best Show nomination in 2017. It's puerile at times but it is also genius. I could quite happily see this show every night at the Fringe. Actually scrub that bit about the Fringe. I could quite happily see this show every night.
Until August 27. Tickets and info here. You can buy in advance to guarantee a seat or donate what you want on the night.
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five stars
