Comedy review: Kevin Bridges

Published on Tuesday 16 June 2009 19:24

KEVIN BRIDGES CRUZ, EDINBURGH ***

AFTER the glamour of appearing on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow for BBC One recently, this was back down to earth with a bump for Kevin Bridges. As he wryly noted, performing in the bottom of a boat felt like a dubious reward for his achievement. And although he was as unstarry as ever, in truth, the Clydebank-born comic never quite found his sea legs here.

An appreciative crowd couldn't compensate for an early evening start and a needless interval robbed him of whatever momentum he was building. For such a young stand-up, he's already banked some fiercely impressive routines – his priest with Tourettes syndrome is always on hand to make a crowd erupt, while his versatile line about the abuse of a kettle is so bizarrely resonant it's virtually a signature gag. Elsewhere, he's smart and subtle highlighting the homoeroticism in army recruitment, while Glasgow's ever-present undercurrent of violence is never far from his thoughts, his vicious "dug" on a bus beautifully realised.

But one audience member's description of Susan Boyle seemed to throw him and he quit a perfectly good routine about council swimming baths, leaving it floundering without a punchline. He's also started employing more accents, with mixed results, in that he capably nails them yet seems in danger of subscribing to easy US-bashing.

Regardless, Bridges is too skilled and assured to ever come completely unstuck and this felt like him treading water before his Edinburgh Fringe debut.