Comedy review: Hello Daddy! Just the Tonic at Marlin's Wynd, Edinburgh

Despite all the quivering trepidation contained in Sam Morrison’s coming out story, the impish American has been making up for lost time and delivers graphic reportage of a young, gay man’s adventures with older, bigger, hairier Daddy Bears in New York.

Hello Daddy! Just the Tonic, Marlin's Wynd (Venue 296)

Hello Daddy! Just the Tonic, Marlin's Wynd ***

Growing up isolated and confused in a small town, a chance encounter with a Seth Rogan-alike is his origin story in more ways than one, as it’s also the central tale on which he hangs his more contemporary exploits.

Animated and cattily charming, he clearly relishes initiating a relatively innocent Edinburgh crowd into the particulars of watersports and the perils of arsehole farts. Yet beyond the instances of shock comedy and his primer to seducing married family men, Morrison imbues his formative love with a satisfying, theatrical level of detail and inner turmoil. Perpetually questioning his relationship to mainstream America, there’s some entertaining anecdotes about his furtive early attempts to watch gay porn online and his father’s hope against hope that he might turn out straight.

JAY RICHARDSON

Until 25 August

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