Comedy review: Tom Taylor is the Indie Feel-Good Hit of the Summer, Pleasance Courtyard – The Cellar, Edinburgh

He had me at ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’. And that was pretty much at the top of a show which is so densely packed with one-liners, tiny songs, bittersweet self -deprecation and surreal thoughts that it might well start sucking other, less full shows into its orbit.

Tom Taylor is the Indie Feel-Good Hit of the Summer, Pleasance Courtyard – The Cellar (Venue 33) ****

As I giggle my way over wave after wave of funny, I am reminded of Boothby Graffoe and Gary Delaney, somehow packed into the tall, thin body of a sweet, speccy middle-class boy-man. This is his debut stand up show but fans of the Charlie Montague Mysteries will already know how funny he is.

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It might be his acting experience that gives him the power to hold a room as he does. Or it could just be that there is not a bad line in the show, not a lull in the hour. Peanuts and communion wafers, braille and the failure of Christianity are all taken for a brisk thought-walk around corners you could not predict before smacking into punchlines you do not see coming. Baking and Hitler, all-day breakfasts and just the one song about Current Affairs are still making me smile. Even the tiny amount of crowd work was delightful. Polite but very funny. Taylor’s hour trots gently by in chuckles and gulps of laughter. It is a genuine joy. - Kate Copstick

Until 25 August.

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