Edinburgh Comedy: Just before his show formally begins, Jonny Sweet glad-hands the audience at the entrance as if he is standing for election. Which is ironic because Sweet’s next role is playing David Cameron in a television comedy drama charting the Tory leader’s early life and friendship with Boris Johnson. For summer recess, however, Sweet has a hit on his hands in the form of this amiable spoof tribute to his brother Arthur.
There is more than a hint of Harry Enfield’s top-hole Tim-Nice-But-Dim here as the grinning star cracks on through a piece that he is determined should be "bloody fun". And bloody fun it is, as he borrows front-row fans for a brief coffee-shop sketch and delivers a pithy powerpoint presentation on Arthur’s origins in Filey and his later career as one of the country’s top blurbists — his work on the back cover of Furtive Fork is legendary in publishing circles.
Sweet certainly throws everything into his performance and while this is not entirely original — there is a splash of Alan Partridge’s foot-in-mouth social ineptitude, too — it is engaging, never sags and creates an absurd fantasy England that Peter Cook would have admired. We cannot comment on Sweet’s Cameron yet, but this certainly gets our vote.
Until 30 August. Information: 0131 226 0000, www.
edfringe.com.
Jonny Sweet
Pleasance
Edinburgh Festival
