The press release describes Dubliner Ed Byrne's show, Standing Up And Falling Down, as being "about the adventures of an ordinary man at war with the everyday world".
What it is really about is a witty man spending 90 minutes being mostly mildly frustrated by modern life. As such it frequently raises a laugh without really raising the roof.
Many of Byrne's targets are the comedic equivalent of fish in a barrel, but he is a dab hand at coming up with new spin on old victims.
There is a particularly lacerating riff about Jade Goody's dieting ("the less space she takes up the more of a waste of space she is") and a tart deconstruction of James Blunt's You're Beautiful - a trick he previously pulled off with Alanis Morissette's Ironic.
Despite the theme, there is a scattershot, hit-and-miss feel to Byrne's irritation. We do not really care about his neighbour's yapping dogs or his annoyance at Pearl Jam fans (a routine astonishingly similar to Daniel Kitson's reflections on Ben Folds followers).
His rap critique is punchy, but this devout atheist only really hits a bull's-eye with an energised rant against fundamentalist Christians.
It is here that Byrne seems truly furious rather than just striking a marketable comic pose. The rest of the show, by comparison, is little more than classy meat and potatoes observational humour.
Far too impressively delivered to get angry about, yet far too formulaic to get excited about.
Until 3 March (020 8237 1111, www.riversidestudios.co.uk).
Ed Byrne: Standing Up And Falling Down
Riverside Studios
Crisp Road, Hammersmith, W6 9RL
