There is powerpoint presentation in comedy and then there is Josh Sharp. While the likes of Dave Gorman pepper their shows with judiciously placed clips and slides, American performer Sharp explains at the outset that his show contains a brain-busting 2000 slides, so without further ado he had better crack on with ta-da!

 

What follows is a brilliantly constructed 75-minute show that, as he alludes to at one point, is the perfect Edinburgh Fringe show, even though he has never played the Fringe. The slides are mostly just words yet hilarious, there are plenty of verbal gags and even a sad bit about parental illness.

 

As he tells each anecdote in this three-act piece it's clear that everything is immeculately structured, with no margin whatsover for error. As well as being very funny it's an impressive feat of memory. Sharp was a child megician and this entire show is something of an elaborate magic trick.

 

There is heart here too as he talks of coming out, his father's affection for singer Adele, his mother's cancer treatment and his own near death by drowning. Oh, and stories of handjobs under bridges, and not under sexy Manhattan bridges, but under industrial LA bridges.

 

To say that the powerpoint is mostly just words though doesn't do it justice. Sometimes it's the script onscreen, sometimes it's footnotes or commenting on the script – as Sharp says, we live in a era of double screening so we should have no difficulty following his verbals and his visuals. Elsewhere he plays around with language and spelling, for example, referring to the venue as "Sew Heaux Feeahhtur."

 

The result is a wonderfully clever, smart set with a neat beginning, a candid middle plus a bit of scientific theory, and a grandstanding end, as jokes seeded earlier come back and bloom. At times his way with word games reminded me a little of Demetri Martin, which is no bad thing.

 

Sharp seemed to coyly think that this coming out angle would mean a mostly gay audience and appeared surprised there were so many straight fans in. Maybe there is an extra resonance if you have also wrestled with your sexuality, but that really doesn't matter. This is simply a joy to watch. It helps, of course, that he has a very engaging personality. You might have seen other multi-media comedy shows but you won't have seen anything quite like this. Go see.