Garrett Millerick is a big bear of a man who you would think could make a good living out of being a professional cynic. From the moment he squeezes onto the stage he is in a controlled rage, despite the show being called the positively cheerful Sunflower. "I'm not a fun guy" he bellows. You said it Garrett.

And it is not just the big things that get his goat. He is angered by cocktail bars, slightly obsessed by the fact that a member of S Club 7 sold his Brit Award. And maybe even more obsessed by the urban myth that an 1980s pop star supposedly sold the rights to his greatest hit so he can't now sing the chorus without paying royalties elsewhere.

He has a lot of fun bludgeoning his audience with his gripes for most of this show. Then there is the biggest u-turn in Edinburgh Fringe comedy history. A screeching handbrake turn that John Thaw and Denis Waterman would have been proud of in The Sweeney.

Millerick's pregnant wife was rushed to hospital earlier this year and what happened next forms the basis of the last third of Millerick's tale. If it's traumatic to hear just think of what it must have been like at the time. It also meant that he had to rewrite his show.

While it is a sad story, however, that doesn't mean it isn't funny. Millerick paints a vivid and often darkly humorous picture of the trip to the hospital, the racing around the wards and even his despair at the situation. 

Sunflower marks a change in Millerick. Maybe the experiences he recounts here will alter him as a comic. They do seem to have made him realise what really matters in life. Maybe they will make him more compassionate and more humane. Maybe he won't get angry at S Club 7 members any more. Somehow though I doubt it. I expect we can still look forward to more Garrett beefs in 2019. 

Until August 26. Info here.

Read more Edinburgh Fringe reviews here.

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