Comedy review: Travis Jay: Funny, Petty, Cool, The Mash House, Edinburgh

Boxing fan Travis Jay has taken some blows of late and is struggling to remain on his feet as a proud black man.

Travis Jay riffs on society's expectations of black men.

Travis Jay: Funny, Petty, Cool, The Mash House, Edinburgh * * *

He’s leery of the characterisations society imposes upon him – from his friends’ peer pressure and the media’s racism, to small talk he goes out of his way to avoid. He knows he’s got internal issues that go way beyond his road rage and his difficulties raising his kids.

Shifting his persona with his glasses and his phone manner, the South Londoner takes inspiration from his late, straight-talking Jamaican grandfather, instigating a very funny act out of some emergency flight procedures, but also opening up about his difficulties in displaying his emotions.

With an appealing front that invariably folds quickly, but a clear-sighted grasp of his faults, he closes on the amusing account of how he inadvertently became a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Until 25 August

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