Comedy review: Glenn Moore: Love Don’t Live Here Glenny Moore, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

Moore takes his audience by surprise over and over again with his quickfire verbal trickery.

Glenn Moore: Love Don’t Live Here Glenny Moore, Pleasance Courtyard – Cabaret Bar (Venue 33) * * * *

Joke follows joke follows joke in his show – which must have one of the highest laugh counts in town. Moore says he wants to hear a laugh every ten seconds – which is a comic overstatement – but not by much.

The self-deprecating, cardigan-wearing comic delights in juxtapositions which are silly, exaggerated and absurd, taking his audience by surprise over and over again with his quickfire verbal trickery.

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At times it’s almost a struggle to keep up – but Moore also revisits his gags, adding to them, extending them and giving them twist after twist. If you missed anything the first time, chances are you’ll have another shot at it later on.

There’s so many laughs that at first this seems to be a show about nothing at all – but there are themes which reveal themselves gradually and build into a revelatory ending.

Moore has the sort of personality that hides behind humour – but this year he allows his audience to know him better. We get to see the fire and passion behind his mild-mannered wisecracking facade.

He looks back on his time as a radio newsreader and considers how the quest for impartiality and balance can be a trap – which distracts people from the truth.

There’s even a deep emotional bit – about death – which permits the audience to fall strangely silent and reflect on the big important questions of life – before Moore ambushes us with the biggest laugh of all.

Nominated for last year’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards and fast winning a reputation as one of TV’s best joke-writers, he is definitely a man to watch.

Until 25 August.

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