Comedy review: Nath Valvo: I’m Happy For You, Assembly George Square. Edinburgh

Nath Valvo just gets better and better.

Nath Valvo takes charge with his funny new show about sweating the little things

Nath Valvo: I’m Happy For You, Assembly George Square. Edinburgh * * * *

His poster is the perfect expression of his act. There he is, dressed in a lovely pink suit, perfect lighting, perfect skin. But there is a weary little snarl curling on his lip where there ought to be a smile. He comes from a nice Italian family and has a great boyfriend and he lives in the metropolitan, food obsessed, hipster capital of Australia – Melbourne.

But it’s the little things in life that get on Valvo’s nerves.

He’d like to be able to get out of social engagements with friends. He frets that his boyfriend is hotter than him. He can’t get his Mum off the phone and his Dad won’t stop talking about the shed. Valvo is wonderfully funny on all the niggling things in life that get in the way of perfect happiness. He has a forensic eye and a descriptive flair for the tiny micro aggressions that go on in the everyday life of families, groups of friends and long term relationships.

He’s self deprecating but confident with it. In fact he’s more than happy to admit to being high maintenance, petulant, difficult, antisocial and hard to please in real life. For someone who has travelled to the other side of the world he seems remarkably at home. But god help the couple who make the mistake of having a sneaky snog during his set.

Valvo is a crowd pleaser but he isn’t a pushover. He identifies the resistant spots in the audience and goads them into laughter. On stage he’s definitely an Alpha male. Once the audience has accepted Nath Valvo is the person in charge of the room, it is time to relax and enjoy an hour of superbly framed stories, full of big, uncomplicated laughs.

Until 25 August

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